Arcreus II: Leviathan
by DarkSideOfTheMoon19
Summary: Power is Everything
1. Prologue

_Pain is all he can remember_

_Pain was everywhere_

_It was in every touch_

_Every taste _

_Every smell_

_Pain was that reality_

_He had fallen into a world in which I had no knowledge_

_No preparation_

_No defence_

_Pain broke through his soul _

_And tore him apart_

_Hell had been revealed _


	2. Beyond Death

**A/N: Ok here we are a new story, remember to send in OC's for this story. Hope is creepy and gory that all my fans like and enjoy. If you haven't read this stories prequel 'Messiah', please go and read and review it.**

The explosion tore reality apart; the two figures were blasted of the roof of the cathedral, slate slabs falling along with them, twisting and somersaulting to the ground. One of them was a grey hedgehog, his body covered in black veins that glowed as the extreme energy of the explosion coursed through him, killing every cell it found in its way, his brown cloak was being burnt up along with the rest of his clothes. The other figure was a crystal hedgehog, his quill being torn and ripped from his head and back, shards of crystal danced in the air like diamond rain. However both of these figures were now dead, their souls now both vacant from their bodies, both on the journey spiralling towards Purgatory, Limbo…Hell.

Theo Arcreus woke up with a start, his eyes rolled around the blackness trying to see his surroundings, but to no avail; the darkness and the pain pressed in from all sides. He groaned loudly in pain and felt his body, checking for the source of the pain however it came from all over, as if his body had been dunked in boiling water. He tried to stand but the pain was too intense, he screamed and fell back onto the invisible floor, tears streaming from his eyes, he clenched his fist and red lightning crackled around it, he hoped it would light up the area around him but this didn't happen. Theo saw the lightning, he knew it was giving off light but the light wasn't radiating to any other source, the area remained black and it was all quiet. Pain was crushing in from all corners of this hell, Theo cried out, he felt as if his skin was being torn apart slowly, that the membranes that held his skin to the fat layer underneath were being vaporised and that the blood, his precious life energy was beginning to flow out of him, coating the dark land in its ruby sheen.

He had experienced pain like this before, his father Mephiles, had beaten and tortured him for 14 years of his life, he had been burned, scalded, gashed, sliced, butchered until his sprit was all in tatters. But all that had changed, he had broken out of his suburban prison and had been found by GUN, who; interested in Theo's uncontrollable powers, enrolled him and kept him safe. However, 5 years later, a virus broke out that spread quickly across the west coast, after discovering its link to demons, he built a bomb that would suppress the demons DNA and destroy them, however he had rushed it so it had a fatal flaw which resulted in Theo dying along with the rest. And…well here he was. He heard something hit the ground not far away from him, it could have been miles away but it was hard to tell in this world of darkness. With one almighty yell he got to his feet, his calves feeling like they were on fire,

"Hello?" he shouted through his teeth, chattering with pain "Is anyone there?", for a moment there was silence, then there was a sound like a fire scaling up into an inferno, it reverberated around the area for a few seconds, then a small red point of light appeared in the blackness above him, like some kind of surreal start. However the point of light was moving, its light spreading across the whole sky like paint running down a wall, its light mixing and absorbing the darkness around it; looking closer Theo made out the red light to actually be a sky of flames each licking and scrambling around the sky as if searching for something. The heat began to intensify as the sky was covered in the reverse sea of flames, this made the combination of both the pain and the heat unbearable to any mere mortal but Theo simply just continued enduring it, praying for the heat to take hold and for fire to erupt from him which would soon lead to the bliss of unconciousness, but alas that was not meant to be. Out of the haze of tears pouring out of his eyes, Theo could see a figure moving towards him, their outline was flickering and warping by the heat haze, caused by the cosmos of fire above them. Then a voice echoed around the world, getting louder and quieter at various intervals,

"So, death is only the door to something new"

Theo recognised the voice that echoed across the world,

"Mephiles?" the figures features came into view, his crystal body sparkling in the fire above, making him shine like stars. Mephiles's quills were jagged and cracked, as if they had been smashed on something, but his manic green eyes seemed to have been the only bit of him that hadn't changed, when he was a few metres away, Mephiles stopped and smiled,

"Welcome to Hell, Theo"

"What?" Theo grunted through gritted teeth "So…I'm, I'm-"

"Dead and so am I, no wait we've just been cast down here but our bodies have been destroyed" Mephiles chuckled as if this piece of news wasn't anything new or special. Theo staggered forward, as the pain ate away at his legs, his eyes still locked with his fathers,

"Well that explains this fucking pain then" Theo grunted, Mephiles's eyes flashed

"Well now you know true pain, not that weak, dull pain of emotions but the pain of knowing that you're in the place in which you have no hope of escaping. The pain your feeling is the pain of all the billions upon billions of lost souls who have been dragged down here; it is shared between everyone down here".

"How come you don't feel it, then?" Theo asked, his whole body shaking due to the pain.

"I am at one with my sins and I do not regret them, so the pain of the lost does not affect me" Mephiles walked around Theo humming softly "Oh yes", he suddenly said, grinding to a halt "This is for destroying my plans" He darted forward and grabbed him by the throat, his fingers digging into his throat and tossed him back 20ft, Theo crashed onto the ground. Mephiles jumped high into the air towards him, his left arm reforming into a large, long crystal blade; however Theo was too quick, he rolled to the side as Mephiles dived down, the blade becoming lodged into the invisible floor, Theo threw his boot out in a lethal hook kick with caught Mephiles in the side of his head, causing the stretched part of his neck to crack and snap, black blood, poured from the ripped and splintered wound. Mephiles cursed and moulded his arm back to normal, pressing one palm to the wound in his neck, he healed himself, bright light coursing through the gaps in his fingers as the wound repaired itself.

"Is that the best you can do?" he laughed, Theo growled then threw himself at Mephiles, electricity charging up in his left hand, Mephiles darted to the side and grabbed Theo by the throat and threw him up into the air, jumping up high after him, his crystal fingers melting away and lengthening into claws. However Theo span around in the air, and fired a dozen bolts of crimson electricity at Mephiles, who simply swept them aside as if they were just smoke in the air, the crystal hedgehog clawed at the air before his son, however his strikes did not miss, the claws raked across Theos chest, tearing away the jacket and shirt then ripping the skin and fat, leaving the whole skin of his chest hanging off by a few thick strands of tendon and fat. The red muscles underneath began to weep and flow with dark red blood as the claws sliced through the black veins that circled his chest. The pain mounted in Theo's chest but he was in so much pain anyway that he barely felt the pain from that wound.

"I may not be able to kill you, but I'll kick your ass further down into this hell" Theo yelled, the blood flow now increasing from his chest causing the blood to seep over the ledge of skin and fat and down his legs. Mephiles smiled,

"Oh on the contrary, you're the one who'll be screaming in the deepest pit of hell". Mephiles charged at him, claws ready; but Theo threw himself into the air and fired bolts of electricity like a machine gun at Mephiles, red bolt after red bolt hitting Mephiles square in the chest in quick succession, as each bolt struck, bits of his crystal chest were torn off, letting black blood pour out of him like a fountain, Mephiles tried to duck and weave his way around the bolts but, Theo simply moved them with one flick of his hand to home in on Mephiles. With one great roar, Theo launched a huge shockwave of energy at Mephiles, which picked him up and threw him like a rag doll; He landed in a heap, blood pouring from his mouth and chest, Theo landed gracefully, the electricity crackling into the floor as he landed on the invisible ground; He saw Mephiles trying to heal himself, the light from his palm flicked and coughed like an old light bulb as he pressed it to his chest. Theo merely walked slowly towards him, watching his father suffer as the pain tore into him as the blood flowed, majestically out.

For once in all the time he had been down here, he had not noticed the pain that circulated around the empty space, he was only focused on sending Mephiles further down into hell, were he would burn and scream for the rest of eternity, but first thing first, he needed to get out of Hell himself. Theo remembered that his father used portals to travel to and fro from different time periods and places; he only hoped that this could work for him too. He held out his hand and concentrated, praying for a portal to spring to life that would send him back to reality, Mephiles chuckled throatily when he saw Theo's efforts,

"Yes. It's much harder than you think. Isn't it?" blood bubbling out of his diamond lips, he was slowly healing himself so Theo had to be quick or he would be the one tasting his own intestine. A small circle of warped air appeared, similar to a heat haze, Theo cursed to himself, it was going to take a lot of power to rip open the barriers between worlds, he remembered how he had overloaded NICOLE's mainframe and how the resulting implosion had catapulted him into an alternate future. If he wanted to get out of Hell he would need the same amount of power that he had used., but on that occasion, one of his fellow mercenaries had amplified his powers using her own. It then dawned on Theo. Amplified. Amplified. He needed to have his powers amplified by something, last time he had used a person's life force, what was to stop him from using one again. With one hand still pointing at the haze, he pointed his other hand at Mephiles, he jerked as a black mist began to sway from his chest and into Theos palm, Theo felt a rush of energy expel through him, his vein pulsed, causing the bleeding from his chest to intensify; black lightening crackled around his body and out of his hands, the portal began to spin faster and a small black crack began to slowly open in the air, forcing the air apart with numerous cracks of thunder.

"You…can't-" Mephiles choked, as Theo slowly stripped away the energy from his soul.

"Oh yes I can" Theo grunted and bared the fingers in his right hand, causing the energy to flow into him faster, the cracks of electricity began to grow as did the electromagnetic field that surrounded him, his eyes turned black, the iris and the pupil fusing into one. The crack in the air suddenly grew until it was over 60cm wide. Theo spotted his opportunity and jumped forward, the crack began to close , but Theo was travelling quicker, rocketing through the air and through the cracked space-time, with only the sound of flames and Mephiles's screams of rage behind him. He fell into the blackness, darker than any nightmare or any abyss, he gave in and let the darkness consume him.

He took his first lungful of air, panic riddled his mind, had he made it? Was he safe? One thing was for sure, the place was dusty as fuck, he coughed and spat out a mouthful of dust-polluted saliva. He felt around, wood on all sides, rotten and decomposing, he realised he was in a coffin, panicking, he found a crack in the wood and dug his fingers into it, tearing open the wood, dirt began to pour in, if he wasn't fast he would suffocate, he torn the hole wide so he could sit up, he clawed at the dirt clearing it out of his eyes, he couldn't breath, he needed Oxygen, he thrashed upward, climbing out of his grave, with dirt and mud surrounding him on all sides, he felt his hand break through the dirt and into nice, cool air. Grabbing a handful of grass, he pulled himself up, yelling with the effort, his body broke through the soil and became enveloped in the cool wind, he lied on his back, breathing heavily, letting himself become blinded by the street lambs and moonlight that lit up the night. He had made it. He was home.

**A/N: hope you guys liked that, remember to submit OC's and include**

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Species:**

**Fur Colour:**

**Eye Colour:**

**Physical Description and Personality:**

**Good or Evil:**

**Back-story (Try and alter it so it fits the story):**

**Views on Theo (do they regard him as a friend or a foe?)**

**Powers:**

**Weapons:**

**See you guys later!**


	3. Two Years of Chaos

**A/N: Ok remember to keep sending in your OC's. this chapter will feature Anything170's OC Ike and Epsilon Team Sgt's OC, Fever. **

Theo got to his feet and looked down at his body, he was dressed in his trademark leather trench coat with a black suit on underneath, all of which was covered in mud and dust, the skin all over his body was cracked and peeling, tinged with deaths white flag. The suit was ripped and fraying in some places and in others complete sections had been torn or eaten away by the general order of decay. His grey fur was matted and caked with mud, in some places, patches of it were missing revealing his peeling white skin to the air. He then tentatively, put one foot in front of the other; he hadn't done this in a long time, judging by the condition of his body he would say that he had been buried at least six months so his legs felt like jelly at the moment. Thankfully though, after a brief period of stumbling, he got the hang of it and was walking along like he used to.

"First thing first" Theo muttered to himself, spitting out dirt soaked spit as he did so "I need to wash this crap off me" He began to slowly walk over the grass and onto the cobblestone path, his footsteps echoed around the deserted park, Theo frowned,

"For a popular park, its pretty damn empty" he thought, as he walked he saw personal items and other object that looked like they had just been abandoned suddenly, without warning, as if their occupants and users had been dragged away. The he looked past the trees and into the skyline itself, it was dead, all turned into ruins, smoke still curling up into the sky from some of them.

Theo fell onto his knees and gazed, cloudy eyed at the ruins; tears began to well up in his eyes, he know knew why it was so quiet, they were gone, dead and were never coming back, it was ironic as Theo had just passed back into the world of the living while the others had fallen.

"NO!" Theo yelled, smacking the ground with his fist, causing small sparks of dark red electricity to dart in between the cracks in the tarmac caused by Theos punch. Tear dripped down and hit the electricity making the tears evaporate into steam with small hiss. He rose, wiping his nose on his sleeve; he had to keep going, to soldier o through this wasteland, this graveyard of memories and dreams; even when the place looked inhospitable, GUN had taught him to remain focused on finding other survivors, other life, anyone who could save him from the worst killer of isolated men. Loneliness.

Using his electricity he formed two long, glowing red beam-swords that emerged from the end of his wrists, which glowed in the dark only rivalled by the lit streetlamps. Then it hit him. Lit streetlamps? If all life was dormant, how could they even be active? It dawned on him, everyone wasn't gone, there was still some people left. This new happy thought made him dart forward, racing up a steep hill to its peak, desperate to find these other survivors. He reached the peak of the hill, out of breath, however the view made his heart plummet; the downward slope of the hill had been completely obliterated, leaving a jagged cliff behind with only a pile of rubble and stone below. The ground beyond was littered with craters, the rims of which were stained with old blood, rotting limbs and severed bodies lay strewn across the battlefield like tombstones, the large lake to the left of the ruined path and scenery was red with blood, hundreds of bodies floated on its surface like jellyfish drifting slowly around as if they were just following the tide. However he noticed no human bodies, all were mobian, young and old, a mixture of all creeds, religions and species, but no human ones. Intrigued, Theo jumped down the cliff face, using electricity that cascaded from his feet to keep him from falling too fast, he landed softly on the ground, the ends of his coat landing swiftly like the wings of a giant monster. He charged up his left hand causing the beam-sword to glow brighter, lighting up the area around him, shimming and darting over the bent and twisted bodies of streetlamps and benches. He moved tentatively forward as if the ground was a sleeping giant who would crush him if it woke, the area was quiet except the occasional gust of wind which blew debris and ash into the sky. How long had he actually been buried for; a year? Two? Three? It was impossible to tell without physical proof.

Then there was rustle to his left, Theo turned sharply, beam-swords raised, electricity charged all around him; a barrel of a gun emerged out of the dark foliage, it extended to a long thin pistol, shining in the light of the electricity, a figure emerged and stepped into the light, his gun still trained on Theo, he was a black-furred wolf with blue stripes running down some of his body, his right eye was surrounded with two long thin scars. His studded jacket and trousers were torn and bloody as if he had been wearing them for a long time.

"Who are you?" The wolf asked, his pistol still raised,

"I could be asking you the same thing" Theo grunted, beam swords pointing at the arrival. The wolf hesitated then spoke,

"My name's Ike" The wolf said, obligingly. Theo smiled,

"Well then, hi Ike, I'm Theo". The wolf put the gun back in its holster and stood opposite Theo, idly flicking a fire ball between his hands,

"What are you doing here?" Ike asked, eyeing Theo up "You don't look like one of the military. Are you a scavenger?",

"No" Theo answered "I just turned up here, out of the blue and I no idea what's happened since I was last in this city". Ike smirked and kicked a small rock sending it skittering across the cracked and worn pavement,

"When was that?" Ike asked, Theo shrugged,

"What year is it?" Ike snorted at the utter stupidity of the question, after chuckling for a few seconds, he looked back at Theo

"Wait…you're serious?"

Theo pointed on of the tips of the beam-swords at the wolfs throat,

"Do I look like I'm joking?", Ike sighed

"It's 18th November 3166" Theo froze. It had been two years since he had left, how could the world have become this in only two years. He had never seen a vibrant culture so full of life bomb within two years, Ike looked at him confused,

"You ok, man?"

"Yeah" Theo breathed "It's just been a long time that's all". Ike frowned, as if trying to work Theo out, then shrugged and turned away,

"Come on" he grunted, beckoning Theo to follow "Two people with powers is better than one in this wasteland. I'll explain what's happened here on the way."

"Way to where?" Theo asked,

"I've got to get food for the survival camps" he said, he pointed at the cremated skyline "And that's the only city for miles around that I _know_ has food reserves".

The two walked forward, their path illuminated by the red glow of Theos beam swords and the occasional working streetlamp; the way was littered with bodies, they managed to step over most of them but occasionally, one of their boots would land on a child's skull and crush it with a crack that echoed through out the dark. Ike normally groaned in disgust when he snapped a bone or smashed a skull, but Theo simply walked on; he was used to this level of brutality and death. After cracking an eighth bone, Ike stopped,

"Right, that's it"

Theo turned

"What?"

"I'm not going to just crush these poor bastards. I'd happily rip the lungs of a human out but not a mobian. It just…doesn't feel right". Theo still looked at him, puzzled; "I'd get out the way if I were you" Ike said, but before Theo could respond, Ike raised his hands and blasted a shockwave of pure electricity at the ground of bodies causing them to fly upwards, brains and guts, cascading out of them and joining the mangled limbs in the air. Then they rained down upon the wide area, landing with splats and thuds onto the grass, Theo nodded, impressed

"You're the second person I know who has electricity powers" Theo glanced down at the beam swords protruding from his wrists "Still not as big a burden as mine though". Ike eyes flared,

"You don't know what's it like" he shouted at him, backing Theo up against a tree, his hands were alight with a mixture of fire, electricity and ice "I was an outcast ever since I was born I had to fend for myself, and I've never stopped loathing society. Since this war started, I've been given a chance to be someone" Theo looked deep into Ikes eyes

"I know what it's like being an outcast, I was beaten, tortured abused, it was everyday, none stop. But then I escaped and became someone. And believe me, fame and fortune are the prequels to madness" Ike stepped back and Theo brushed past him back onto the path. However Ike noticed a red dot on Theo back, he immediately knew what it was, he dived on Theo just as the bullet was launched to the place where Theo's spine had just been. A hail of bullet began to rain down upon them from unidentifiable sources,

"We need to go!" Ike yelled, at Theo; blasting a ball of ice into the night randomly, hoping to hit the sniper, The retracted the beam-swords and pushed Ike off him and the pair of them began to run, bullets missing them by inches, causing dust to rise into their faces when they impacted the ground.

Each fired bolts of electricity behind them hoping to hit some of the pursuers, there was the occasional grunt and slam as their bodies hit the ground but for the most part the gunfire continued to follow and peruse them. Then something darted quickly in front of them and grabbed them, pulling them off the path and into a cluster of deep bushes.

"Hey what the fu- Ike whispered but was cut off by the arrivals voice

"Keep quiet" Theo heard a click and the figure threw a small hand grenade out of their hiding place and onto the path, Theo and Ikes pursuers thundered by them, not even noticing the small metal ball that had been thrown into their path. There was a large explosion, that caused their ears to ring and block out any other noise, Theo felt something splash against his face, lifting his hand up he found that their pursuer's blood was now staining his face. Ike wiped a bit off his jacket and gingerly licked it

"Human" he muttered,

"So that was humans chasing us?" Theo asked "What the hell!".

"Don't you know there's a war on?" the mysterious figure asked, they straightened up and moved out of the cluster of bushes, they became bathed in orange light from a nearby streetlamp, giving Theo and Ike a view of their saviour. He was a tall, black hedgehog, with deep emerald eyes that shone in the darkness and two long bangs hanging just above his eyebrow. His clothes were army standard and torn, and dripping with blood of the newly slaughtered humans, a 500 Smith and Wesson hung in a holster attached to his belt and Theo could detect a familiar aura coming from him like fog from a far distant land. The hedgehog kicked some of the human remains out of the way and gazed at Ike and Theo, he smiled,

"Sorry about the mess" without thinking Ike pulled out his pistol and shot him…only to find that he had disappeared, "Now is that any way to say thanks to the guy who just saved your asses?" Looking up, They found him sat on a thick branch on a nearby tree, his legs swinging back and forth like an innocent school girl. Ike turned his gun on him again,

"Stay still you fucking son-of-a-"

"Stop" Theo said, pushing Ikes pistol down, he looked at the hedgehog, his dark red eyes burrowing into his green ones "You're a demon".

"Yep" he said, jumping down from the branch and landing in a pool of spilled blood, "And also a vampire and an athlete" he held out his hand "I'm Jon, but you guys can call me Fever". Ike snorted,

"Fever? What kind of name is th-" Theo cut across him and shook Fevers hand,

"I'm Theo, Theo Arcreus" Fever cocked his head, puzzled,

"Arcreus? Arn't you suppose to be in Hell with your scary-ass dad?".

"How do you know?" Theo asked, whipping his hand away as if Fever was infected with some horrible affliction,

"I've met Mephiles" Fever breathed "He hunted me and my legion for about six months. I know how scary that bastard is and to meet the 'Son of Fear' himself, well, its an honour" He tipped an imaginary hat to Theo. Then Ike broke their conversation,

"Hang on, Theo's a demon too?" Theo looked over his shoulder to look at him,

"Yes, but I'm not like the others, I don't kill for sport" he quickly turned back to Fever "No offence by the way"

Fever nodded "None taken".

Ike groaned and face-palmed himself,

"Great, I'm stuck in ground zero with two demons. It sounds like the start to a bad joke".

"Or a very real one" Fever said "C'mon lets get moving. I need to find and get previsions back to camp by sunrise" The three began to walk, quickly down the cracked stone pavement, each of their hands lit up with their power, Theo as the only odd one out, wielding electricity while the other two had fire encrusting their hands. Theo turned to Ike,

"Earlier you said that this was caused by war, what happened?"

"Relationships between the mobians and the humans haven't been great, we've quarrelled and waged war against each other"

"The Great War" Theo stated, Ike nodded

"That war made the mobians the dominant species on Mobius and it also limited the humans technology while we made the leaps and bounds of advanced technology. The humans helped us in times of great need as did we, but we never formed a collaboration of governments, our cultures have remained distant from each other. Then about two years ago, our relationships reached their limits. The humans had a outbreak of smallpox to deal with and they asked us for help but in the meantime we were still dealing with our own problems like a economical recession and dwindling food supplies, so we refused." Fever nodded in agreement,

"Surly the humans understood why we couldn't give them the supplies?" Theo asked, Fever snorted,

"The fucking humans always hate being denied something, they toss aside all reason, thinking that they are right. They blamed us for their suffering and then when we continued to deny that it was our fault, we sent in troops into the infected areas, loaded with food and supplies. They shot them down, thinking that we were launching an invasion. We blamed them for the soldier's death and they blamed us for… more or less everything, then they launched the first EMP missiles, which knocked out our technological advantage, after that they bombarded the mobian states with H-bombs, they practically destroyed most of our cities, even Angel Island was blown apart in the shockwaves. It happened so quickly, we couldn't even respond it was like we had gone into shock, then the humans landed on our shores, they have been around on this world longer than us, they are more experienced in warfare. They marched through our lands executing every mobian they saw, most of the survivors fled to survival camps in the mountains or under the desert." Fever swallowed, judging by his body language Theo guessed that he had lost someone dear to him, but he felt it was wise not to ask.

"I remember a human soldier, killed a mobian in the street" Ike said quietly, his fists clenched so hard, blood was oozing from in-between the fingers "Some of his group were holding her toddler back, they shot her right in front of him, then they simply walked away and left the toddler. He went over to his mum and gently shook her, asking her why she was asleep." Ike said, his voice cracking. Theo stopped and glared down at the floor, the other two stopped and looked at him,

"Whats wrong?" Fever asked

"There goanna pay" Theo breathed "Even if it's the last thing I do, those cunts are going to suffer" he began to run towards the skyline, rage burning in his heart,

"Now thats more like it!" Ike whooped and began to run after Theo,

"Hey, guys wait!" Fever yelled and began to chase after the two speeding figures.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked that, remember to keep sending in OC's and include**

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Species:**

**Fur Colour:**

**Eye Colour:**

**Physical Description and Personality:**

**Good or Evil:**

**Back-story (Try and alter it so it fits the story):**

**Views on Theo (do they regard him as a friend or a foe?)**

**Powers:**

**Weapons:**

**Remember to click the button below and review. PM me with any compliments or suggestions. **


	4. A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

**A/N: Ok then on with chapter 3.**

Theo was crouched, silently behind a pile of rubble, listening to the sounds of the human talking quietly and checking their weapons. He had lost Ike and Fever sometime earlier and to be perfectly honest he wanted to be by himself, as much as company was welcome, he preferred to be by himself, he thought he made better decisions when there was nobody to distract him. He charged up his hand slightly, causing red sparks to dart off it, which soon hit the floor and scurried away from him like frightened animals. His mind then turned to Sonic and the others, were they still alive? Or were they buried in the cold ground like he had been? He peeked over the edge of the rubble, he could see about eight humans, all around twice his height, they were stood in a circle talking about mundane topics like the quality of their food and the comfort they had with their sleeping arrangements. Now was the perfect time to strike, he rolled out from cover and whilst crouched, he walked up towards the group of humans, his feet making no noise on the tarmac.

When he was only a few inches from the back of the nearest soldier, he electrified his whole arm and smashed it into the guards shins, however his arm was so hot, it burned through both of the guards legs, the remains of his ankles skittered away as the soldier tumbled to the ground. As the soldier fell, Theo grabbed the AK-47 slung around his shoulder, the other seven soldiers raised their weapons but Theo was too quick for them, he dodged to the side and smacked the next soldier with the butt of the rifle, he felt the cartledge in his nose snap and was greeted by a burst of dark red blood, that gushed over the butt of the gun. Theo rushed over and began to shoot at the soldiers as bullets whizzed passed him, within 15 seconds, all the soldiers were down, blood pouring from their chests. Theo landed lightly on his feet, his boots bathed in blood. He looked at the bodies with a expression of disgust and continued to walk forward, kicking one of the bodies out of the way as he did so.

The buildings either side of him were ruined and desolate, but if he looked closer, he could spot the remnants of campfires and beds lying on the ruined cliffs of concrete and steel. He kept his guard up, he knew that there was a possibility that a large number of humans could have occupied the city, and the fight that had just happened could have woken some of them up. He kept walking, turning sharply, gun raised at the slightest crack or whisper of wind, this whole setting suddenly reminded him of a mission in Al-Semario he did over six years earlier, it was his first field mission and he remembered it as if it was only a few seconds old; he strolled on quietly as the memory consumed his mind.

_9th June 3160; Al-Semario (26 miles outside of Shamar) _

_Private Theodore Arcreus was sat in the back of the heavily armoured GUN jeep, a standard issue FAL assault rifle in his lap, his military uniform was brand new, in fact he had taken it out of the plastic wrapping a mere two hours earlier, his pure white quills were cut to around an inch long and his metallic eye glowed as he gazed out of the window at the middle-eastern town. Sat across him was Shadow the Hedgehog, dressed in a similar uniform to Theo's, but unlike him; Shadow was calm and unconcerned. Theo began to fiddle with the inhibiter rings attached around his wrists, as if he was looking for something to distract him from the overwhelming truth that this wasn't any ordinary training exercise, they weren't using false rounds, and there wasn't any reward for getting it done quick. This was genuine warfare, and one false move could get him killed._

"_Hey" Shadow said, and Theo looked up "You OK?"_

_Theo breathed out a sigh _

"_I'm just grasping the fact that this is my first mission and me and you are the only GUN operatives, all the rest are Army Rangers"._

"_You'll be fine, you remember all your basic training, right?"_

_Theo nodded_

"_Course. Everything from stealth to advanced power control"._

"_Good" Shadow remarked "But remember NEVER take off the inhibitor rings that you have, your powers will go into overload and you'll be out of control."_

"_Yeah, yeah, I know" Theo said smiling a little. The vehicle came to a sudden stop. Theo heard the doors of the armoured ranger convoys ahead of them slam open, followed swiftly by the sound of shouting and gunfire. A bullet hit the bullet-proof glass fitted in their door, making Theo flinch and withdrawal slightly. Shadow kicked the door open and grabbed a P90 from the seat next to him._

"_Ok. Lets move!"_

_The two hedgehogs emerged into the blinding middle-eastern sun; Theo instinctively looked for cover and found it behind an abandoned fruit stall, the sound of gunfire was thick in his ears. He leaned slightly out and spotted one of the terrorists they had been sent to stop, they were an international group, altogether having tens of thousands of members; their attacks were random so they couldn't be traced but at the same time they were also uniform and balanced as if they were following some great divine precursor. The group didn't have an official name but GUN had nicknamed them 'Unknown'. Raising the FAL Theo shot two bullets at the terrorist, which hit him in the chest and the shoulder; he fell and disappeared behind a stack of crates. Bullets tore threw the wood next to where he was crouched, he yelped and leaped back, he quickly fired more bullets at the advancing group, some of them crumpled but they kept on moving. Theo spotted Shadow slightly ahead of him, crouched behind an armoured convoy,_

"_We need to flush them out!" He shouted at Theo, before he grabbed a grenade from his belt and tossing it into the advancing group of terrorists. "GRENADE!" As the grenade exploded, Theo blacked out suddenly and fell and remembered no more. _

_Theo slowly opened his eyes; his head was half buried in sand along with most of his body, the sand had been absorbing the heat from the sun and now Theo felt like he was in a furnace. He pushed himself up slowly, his heartbeat pounding in his ears; he slowly looked around, it was early evening the clear sky was a combination of reds and oranges, the armoured convoys and GUN vehicles had disappeared leaving only shallow tracks in there wake. He felt through the sand with his foot and found an object that felt like his gun, but when he stopped down and picked it up, he found the barrel smashed and splintered. He growled and tossed it aside. Then he noticed something strange, on the walls of the buildings all around him was a symbol sprayed in luminous red paint, all different sizes, and all varying levels of neatness. He felt his heartbeat speed up as the symbol bore into his mind. Then there was a loud bleeping noise from his belt, he reached down and unclipped the chirping radio and flipped the cover of its bulky case, he lifted it to his ear, something told him that command wouldn't be on the other end._

"_Hello?" No answer only breathing that reverberated through the speaker in the radio. "This is Private Theo Arcreus, who am I addressing? Over" Once again no answer. _

"_Oh fuck this" Theo thought and closed the case, silencing the unsettling breathing; and replaced it back on his belt, he cautiously began to walk, listening intently for any sign of GUN or the army. He intended to walk down the main street but he seemed to be drawn towards a narrow alley where the concentration of symbols increased, he hesitantly began to walk towards the alley, opening the holster in his belt and pulling out a 44. Magnum. As he approached the entrance, whispers began to perforate through his mind, inaudible murmurs that ran through his head like a busted cassette tape._

_He rounded the corner, gun raised, his heart pounding, the alley seemed to run on into oblivion, flanked on all sides by overlapping and coincided symbols, their red glow fading as it stretched onwards into the darkness. The whispers grew in his mind, until he felt as if his ears were being slowly torn apart, he didn't just back away, he ran, back to his hiding place and crouched back down in the sand, breathing heavily, the whispers faded once more out of his mind. The bleeping sounded once more from his radio, he pulled down the case and began to listen, something began to slowly sound it eventually grew louder and louder until Theo could discern it;_

"_12, 5, 22, 9, 1, 20, 8, 1, 15…9, 19, 14, 16, 22, 9, 15, 7, 20, 16…25, 16, 21"._

_But before Theo could make sense of it, the environment around him began to break up and move around him as if it was alive, the sky smashed and burned, he got up to run but his vision died and he fell into the blackness…_

He gulped and opened his eyes, that wasn't how he remembered it at all, it was as if his memories had taken a mind of there own and warped to suit their own needs, He walked along, head down, still thinking about what just happened, when he noticed a symbol sprayed in red luminous paint below him, his stomach dropped. It was the same symbol he had seen in his memory, the exact same, he was sure of it. He looked around checking for more but there wasn't one to be seen anywhere else, he looked down and continued to stare at the symbol beneath his feet, fixated by it, overwhelmed with curiosity.

"Imagine, Mr Arcreus"

Theo looked up sharply, instantly forming a fighting stance, his fists electrified, eyes searching out the source of the voice.

"Who's there?" he called, expecting the laser sight of a rifle or a sniper to start emerging from the darkness.

"Imagine that one tiny thing, one pathetic decision"

Theo wheeled around to be faced by yet more dark streets

"Could change the future and set it on new rails"

Theo fired a bolt into the darkness, it whizzed off, lighting up anything around it in a dark red glow.

"Not just for you. But for the whole world".

A figure appeared out of the darkness ahead of him, hooded and caped, his head down, hands behind his back. Theo tried to make out the figures face but the darkness consumed his body so his features were covered in a black sheet.

"Who the _fuck_ are you?"

The figure removed his hands from behind his back; he noticed that his hands were metal and robotic, glimmering in the faint starlight.

"I am the darkness, the empty spaces between event, the silence before the storm. But then again who am I? Am I here? Or am I there? No one can tell".

Theo growled

"Enough with the god-damn riddles already. Give me a straight answer"

The figure chuckled,

"Why? You have all you need there" he pointed at the symbol on the floor "And in here" he tapped the side of his head, the figure began to walk forward towards Theo, in response Theo charged up his fist and fired at the figure, but quick as a flash, the figure raised his hand and grabbed the bolt of lightening and threw it to the side as if it were a canopy of leaves that were covering his way.

"Remember, Mr Arcreus" The figure came into better light an his face was lit up, he was an echidna but all trace of that had long since faded, his entire head and Theo guessed his whole body was robotic with pipes pumping liquid into the ancient shell of his organic structure, His eyes had been replaced with two red robotic implants.

"My name is Dimitri and we are at the beginning of something which will twist all you know". And with a blink of an eye, Dimitri was gone, replaced by a cold wind that billowed through the tail of his trench coat, causing it to flutter like the wings of a bat. Theo wheeled about searching for Dimitri, but the robotic echidna had disappeared, leaving only the silence in his wake. He had heard about Dimitri back when he was a GUN agent and he had been explicitly warned not to get in his way, he had a habit of roasting his enemies in pure Chaos energy. A shot fired out in the darkness, causing the tarmac near Theo to rip itself up, throwing dust up in a thin plum above it, shouts then echoed from the surrounding building and more sniper shots began to tear up the road in front to him. He turned and ran, sharply dodging and avoiding the burnt-out wreaks that littered the road, bullets whizzing above his head and smacking into the ruins that surrounded him.

He quickly flipped over a crumbling wall and ran on through what looked like a burnt and wreaked office, with plastic chairs lying idly on their side and rusting computers, stripped and exposed to the elements sitting untouched on splintered and blackened desks, Theo heard the sound of barking dogs not far away, his heart sank, dogs could find him faster than humans could and it wasn't matter of if, it was a matter of when. He quickly vaulted a overturned desk and slammed his shoulder into a rotting wooden door, its rusting hinges snapped and he crashed though into a half destroyed concrete stairwell, with the outer wall blown out, revealing the ruined landscape beyond. Theo took a run up and jumped forward over a large gap between two flights of stairs, he slammed into the side, winding him, but before he fell, Theo grabbed the ledge with one hand and by the jerking movement of his body from the shock of his seizing the ledge, was forced to look down, bellow him were three huge black dogs, their mouths open, revealing there huge shining white teeth coated in a thick layer of drool that overflowed onto their lower lip. As soon as they heard the clatter from above, they looked up and began to bark madly, jumping up and trying to snap at his ankles. Theo quickly grabbed the ledge with his free hand and pulled himself up with great effort, but as soon he was up, he ran on up the crumbling stair, wall-running over small gaps and throwing himself with a desperate madness over larger ones. The barking and yells rang in his ears, as if those sounds were his memories that eternally haunted him. He fell against the wall when he scrambled up to what he guessed was the 20th floor, and sure enough on the wall next to him was a cracked and charred sign of the number 20. With on almighty burst of strength, he kicked the door off its hinges sending it flying across the ruined office, The dogs were only a few metres away from him, he could almost smell their rancid breath, tainting the air ahead of them. But he was tired and winded, so instead of running, he grabbed a length of chain they lay in a heap of rubble and began to swing it around, speeding it up.

"You want some?" He yelled at the canines "COME ON!". One of the larger ones then pounced at him, but in a split second Theo swung the chain down on the top of it skull, there was a gut-churning crunch at the heavy metal chain crushed the canines skull, which in turn made its head into nothing more than bloody pulp. It collapsed to the side. Dead. Another made a lash for his leg whist it comrade pounced like its predecessor aiming for his chest, Theo was barrelled over until he was lying on his back with the dog on top of him, holding back it jaws away from his throat as they snapped quickly, drool dripping down onto his face, a sharp pain rocketed threw his leg as the second dog bit into it, he felt its teeth graze his shin bone whist it tore his calf.

Howling in pain, Theo quickly kicked upwards, kicking the snacking dog in the stomach, it yelped and relinquished it grip. Then Theo quickly wrapped his hands around the other dogs throat, whist desperately trying to keep its razor sharp teeth away from his own throat. The dog made a choking sound as Theo pressed down harder on its windpipe and with one last splutter, its body relaxed and it fell onto the group to join is dismembered forbear. He got to his feet groaning quietly at the pain in his leg, the final dog was busy drinking the pool of Theo's blood that lay on the dark concrete, and with one hard kick to its head, it crumbled as well. Breathing hard, Theo supported himself on a desk, not daring to put too much weight on his injured leg, until he heard an inevitable sound.

"Freeze!"

He looked up and saw a platoon of human soldiers, shrouded in the doorway, guns raised, trigger-fingers at the ready, Theo smiled,

"Kill me then" he breathed "This future's shit anyway" he closed his eyes and waited for the bullets to start tearing through him. Suddenly there was a ear-splitting sound of a chain-gun being fired behind him, covering his ears, he dropped to the floor, eyes shut tight. He was aware of some people entering the building, he opened his eyes, ears-ringing, the soldiers ahead of him, lay dead, torn apart from the mass force of the multitude of bullets. He was yanked to his feet by unseen hands and dragged towards the window, where a small recon chopper was hovering outside. He turned his head slightly and looked at the soldiers. Mobian. He breathed a sigh or relief and passed out.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked that chapter, I didn't include any other OC's because I wanted to more or less set up for the overall theme of the story. Also Dimitri is a character from the Archie comics and he's probably my second or third favourite villain in the comics. Anyway. PLEASE REVIEW even if you haven't reviewed before. I'd like to meet more awesome writers and I'm happy to read other people's Sonic fan-fic and offer my opinion. **


	5. Wish You Were Here

Theo groggily surrendered himself from the unconscious state he was in, only to be greeted by pure chaos. Explosions and gunfire dominated reality, as the floor beneath him swayed and lurched like the desk of a ship on a stormy ocean. He looked up at his surroundings, he had been handcuffed to a rail and he was currently sat down on the metallic floor with one arm fixed uselessly above him. His saviours (or captors) we busy fighting off an unseen threat that was chasing after them, both of the large, sliding doors on either side were open and manned gun turrets were blazing away. Theo tried to call out to one of the soldiers but the sheer noise of the battle drowned him out. He sighed noisily and looked around and spotted Ike, however not the Ike he knew, he was covered in blue flames, with two wings bursting from his back, one made of lava and the other made of crackling yellow lightning, he spotted that his claws had turned into long thin icicles, that oddly enough weren't melting despite the supernatural flames. He was leaning out of the helicopter door and firing bolts of raw electricity at the unseen enemy.

"HEY IKE!" Theo yelled at him, Ike must have heard him over the noise as he stopped firing and turned around and noticed Theo, he pushed past the other soldiers calmly until he was close to where Theo was chained up, he crouched down so the two were at eye level.

"Nice to see you, Theo" He said loudly over the explosions, Theo rattled his handcuffed hand, in an attempt to get it free but the handcuffs and the bar held firm. Ike glanced up at the handcuffs and looked back at Theo, then at the handcuffs once again and then once more back at Theo, then it dawned on him from Theo's exasperated look of annoyance. "Oh, you want _me _to get you out?"

"No shit, Sherlock!" Theo yelled "What's with the new look?"

Ike looked down at himself, "You mean this? Vampire form my friend. Time to kick some human arse!" A violent lurch rocked the helicopter causing Ike to grab hold of one of the support bars in order to steady himself "And no, I can't get you out, the boss doesn't trust you".

"Great, why doesn't he trust me?"

"_She_, actually, and no; she _really_ doesn't trust you"

Theo sighed and pulled on the handcuffs with his free hand, he even tried shocking them but once again to no avail. A door on the other side of the room opened quickly and Fever stepped through, his black quills swaying about and his emerald eyes cold and focused, In his hand he was carrying two pairs of metal gauntlets, with thick wrist rings, which reminded Theo of the gauntlets that Chaos had given him, one of which he tossed to Ike.

"What are they?" Theo asked, Fever turned to him whilst removing his own gloves and replacing them with the new ones.

"Magnetic grapple gauntlets" Fever said calmly, pressing some of the buttons on the wrist. "Me and Mr Chuckles over there are goanna use these to grapple onto the bottom of the helicopter, aim rocket launchers at the humans ones and BOOOM!" he mimed a explosion as he said the final word with his free hand. "Bobs your uncle". One of the soldier emerged from the cockpit, and Theo was surprised to see a pink echidna with purple hair, with metal attachments on her dreadlocks. Julie-Su. She was dressed in typical army gear, which was completely different to her normal attire; she closed the door with a snap and, completely ignoring Theo, walked up to Ike and Fever who were just strapping the rocket launchers to their backs.

"Ike" She said "Please get out of your Vampire Form"

"Why, Mrs Grumpy-kins?" Ike asked

"Your electro-magnetic field is playing hell with the instruments. So either get out of your form or I'll kick you of this copter". Ike sighed while Fever chuckled,

"Fine, fine whatever" Ike muttered and with a click of his fingers, the flames encompassing his body disappeared, and his wings faded away into nothingness. Fever put his hand on Julie-Su's shoulder,

"See ya in Hell" he breathed before jumping backward out of the helicopter, closely followed by Ike, who whooped as he fell. There were two loud bangs as the magnetic grapples in their gauntlets fired and attached themselves to the outer shell of the helicopter, Julie-Su, lent out of the open door of the helicopter to observe the two, holding onto one of the support bars as she did so, Theo tried to scoot across to see them to, but a sudden burst of pain in his mauled leg prevented him from doing so, he grunted in pain and stopped moving, for a moment he had almost forgot that he had had his leg chewed on by hunting dogs. Julie-Su whipped around at the noise and approached Theo,

"Hey Julie" Theo said "Could you please get me out of these handcuffs, I bruise easily you know" However, she ignored his request and opened up a pouch on her belt and removed a long hypodermic needle from it, filled with a cloudy, purple liquid, and without a word of warning She jabbed it into Theo neck, making him yelp; he felt the plunger being pressed and a cold presence emerging into his veins. Julie-Su removed the needle and tossed it out of the helicopter, letting it flip and tumble as it fell.

"What the hell was that?" Theo yelled at her, surprised by the sudden act that she had just performed,

"Painkillers" she said coldly "To stop you wining like a bitch" She looked over her shoulder to look at him "You can't be Arcreus". Theo chuckled slightly,

"Well I can assure you, I'm the real deal"

"Theo died, his body was incapable of supporting life, so how can you be him, if the real Theo Arcreus was obliterated in the blast?". Theo frowned, he tried to remember how he had come back to life but whenever he was close, his memory died like an ancient videotape, unable to discern anything from the moment he activated the demon bomb to when he woke up in his coffin, six feet underground.

"Well you got me there" Theo admitted

"Exactly" Julie-Su agreed, glancing over the edge of the helicopter at Ike and Fever "So if your not Theo then who-

She was cut off by an enormous explosion, which threw the helicopter violently to the side, everyone desperately grabbed for a handhold apart from Theo who couldn't reach for one due to his helpless state,

"We've been hit!" One of the soldiers yelled

"Yeah, no shit!" Theo shouted back over the commotion, suddenly a terrible grating sound came from the rotors above as if something was slowly tearing threw them, savouring the fear from the passengers inside. Another blast tore threw the helicopter, throwing the floor of the helicopter vertical, the soldiers grabbed onto their hand holds for dear life but Theo was left dangling from his wrist, which jerked at his shoulder to an extent that Theo thought his shoulder was going to dislocate. He then heard a creaking tear, not as grand a magnitude as the sound of the rotors becoming damaged but still loud enough for Theo to pick it up, he looked upwards and saw the links in the chain of the handcuffs beginning to open like the jaws of a great beast. However before he could cry out, The chain snapped and he dropped like a stone, plummeting out of the open door and falling head long towards the earth, his trench coat flapping uselessly around him like broken wings, he tried using his electricity to hover above the ground but he was spinning so fast, he couldn't get his orientation right. His lungs constricted as he breathing increased, due to his heart beating like their was no tomorrow, which was actually pretty probable in his case. He fell though the low lying mist of smoke and water vapour as he fell ever closer towards the desolate ruins of an abandoned city, he closed his eyes and braced for impact, and finally unable to hold it in, he screamed as the air went rushing past him…

His vision began to slowly seep back over the darkness, at first he thought that he was dead but as more of his senses returned to him, it became apparent that he hadn't been cast into oblivion as he had just thought. The cold bit into his body and a blanket of snow that covered him only reinforced the icy grip that the weather had on him. He rolled onto his back, breaking the sheet of snow that covered him, His eyes opened fully, so they gazed upon a dark, grey sky with swirling masses of snow gliding through it without a care in the world, out of the corner of his vision he could see the tips of slanted and crumbling buildings, black and featureless amidst the gloom of the blizzard. Theo pushed himself up slowly, head swimming, he examined himself, expecting to find a broken limb of two, but he was unscathed. He frowned,

"How the hell?" He muttered to himself, brushing his hands over his arms and legs "Either those painkillers are _really_ strong or something slowed my fall". He now noticed an orange glow not far from him, he guessed it was a fire of some sort but he couldn't tell as the storm was screwing his visibility up. He rose to his feet, feeling a strong surge of pain down his right leg from the puncture wounds pieced into his shin, swearing slightly under his breath, he limped slowly towards the orange glow, his hands clasped around his chest to keep himself warm, his feet felt like blocks of ice and he was convinced that he'd soon get frostbite if he didn't warm up.

The glow of flames was tinted onto the pure whiteness of the snow beneath him, their heat diffusing all around as if trying to be rid of the scourge that haunted the air. The source of the flames soon came into clarity, out of the swirling clouds of snow and ice came the blackened and smouldering ruins of a large helicopter, but it was so mutilated and torn that it was now hardly recognisable, flames licked at the metalwork and dark smoke joined the snow in its surreal dance in the air. His mind instantly turned to the fate of everyone aboard Julie-Su's helicopter and fearing the worst, Theo darted forward, his injured foot dragging behind him through the thick layers of snow, he reached the smouldering wreck but the intense heat held him back before he could burn himself on the metal. He scanned the few ripped and burning bodies that he could see, but all of them were so charred that he couldn't tell if they were Mobian or Human. A shout came from near by, Theo warily backed away, looking around trying to find the source of the noise but it was near to impossible in the low visibility.

He searched the floor for a weapon and spotted a long black object sticking out of the snow; he crouched down and wiped the snow off it, revealing the full extent of the object.

"Aw hell yes" Theo muttered in joy to himself, the object was a dozen barrel, lightweight chaingun, with a harness strapped to it, allowing it to be portable, Theo picked up the weapon and fitted the harness over his chest as quickly as he dared, he checked the ammo and grinned, fully loaded. Perfect. He fastened the final straps around his left arm and he was ready. The shouts and footsteps increased, looking through the main cabin of the helicopter, he could just make out the shape of about a dozen soldiers, human guessing by their size racing towards the wreckage. He began to walk slowly around the wreckage, aware of the supreme power he wielded in his hands, he rounded the corner of the blackened war machine, he could see red laser emerging from the gloom, probably from sights fitted onto the human's weapons, with his left thumb he flipped the safety off and then pulled the trigger, he felt like the gun was a rocket trying to escape from his hands, he kept the trigged held firmly down, not knowing what he was firing bullets at or whether he had missed altogether, he couldn't hear any shouts either as the racket caused by the chaingun felt like it was perforating is ear drums. There was a click and the racket and flashes from the muzzle ceased, Theo looked down on it puzzled, he pressed the trigger again only to be greeted by the clicking noise, exasperated, Theo pressed the trigger once more,

"Come on!" He wined "Less staling. More destroying!" he then realised what was wrong, "Crap, out of ammo!" He tore off the harness and scurried for cover; concerned whether humans were still alive. Breathing deeply, he leaned his head to see what was happing, he saw that the chaingun had done barely anything, a few humans lay dead but the others look relatively unscathed, but what seemed worse was the fact that at lease 15 more were appearing over the snow-crusted ridge. Theo wheeled round so he couldn't be seen

"Ok, come on. Think. Think. Think!"

Miles above him, and anonymous to everyone, a fat, bald man watched the action that was unfolding on a giant screen ahead of him. He lent back in his chair, which creaked ominously as he did,

"Do we have identification on the Mobian?" The man asked, his fingers pressed together in thought.

"_Negative"_ one of the mans metallic creations responded, _"Its energy signature is not listed in the overall memory bank"._

"Hmm" The fat scientist said, pondering the problem like a detective "Interesting".

"_Shall I send down the extraction force, Dr Eggman?". _Eggman smiled and lent forward on his chair, stroking his large, brown moustache.

"No need" he said "Activate a full DNA scan on the Mobian" His manic grin widened "I'm interested to see how this will play out".

**A/N: Hope you guys liked that chapter remember to read and review, that means ALL of you! Oh PS: Sonic Generations is sweet!**


	6. White As Snow

**A/N: On with a new chapter, remember to read and review and spread the word, as I would love to get this video to over 1000 hits.**

Theo waited tentatively behind the burning helicopter, listening closely to the approaching footsteps, crunching through the snow, his heart was beating a mile a minute and it didn't help that his vision was swaying and blurring, possibly from shock. His mind was working overtime trying desperately to come up with a plan that wouldn't involve him dead and bleeding in the snow, he began to slowly charge up his hands waiting for the soldiers to emerge from behind Theo's cover. His head was throbbing, images of gruesome deaths were flashing before his eyes, the buildings seemed to be moving, fast and angular as if they were alive, the clouds up above were moving at an incredible speed, he staggered to his feet, confused.

"What the fuck?" He muttered but then he saw something come around the corner of the helicopter, he expected a human soldier but to his surprise it wasn't, but it was so much more terrifying, the creature looked like it had been designed by a child, its face, which resembled a humans, had its features muddled and distorted, one of its eyes was on its chin and the other seemed to have replaced the left ear, it hair was in clumps on top of its confused scalp, the creature was over 8ft tall, over twice Theo's height, its spine was horribly curved giving the creature a hunchback, the creatures arms were overly long and dragged it long, claw-like fingers behind its mangled legs and feet. It made a gurgling, rasping sound, revealing long razor-sharp teeth that circled its mouth.

Theo began to slowly back away from the deformation, trying to focus on what to do, his head ached and burned making any rationalised thought extremely difficult to carry out, the creature drew closer soon followed by others like it. He tripped and fell backwards, the creatures bore down upon him with merciless intent, but suddenly Theo noticed something, a symbol, painted in luminous red, shinning in the snow about 3 ft away from him, Theo remembered the symbol from New Mobotropolis, and he felt as if the symbol was clawing into his mind then a sudden surge of power rocketed through his veins, the symbol burned into every neurone in his brain, coursing through every living memory, ticking away in the subconscious, a high pitched frequency rang through his ears, making him cover them sharply. He yelled, but it was drowned out by the intensity of the sound. Out the corner of his eye he saw the mutilated creature raise its claws, preparing to strike, but before the claw landed, Theo threw his hand out wildly as if trying to push it away, to his great surprise, a long beam of electricity coursed from his fist and sliced through the creatures shins, shattering the bone and blackening the ripped muscle, the creature screamed and fell, crushing its mangled nose, spraying blood all over the snow.

Theo jumped to his feet and stamped on the creatures head, he felt the skull shatter and his foot dip into warm insides of the brain, cringing in disgust, he threw his foot away from crushed entrails, he gazed at the giant horde of creatures coming towards him, all mangled and deformed, all shuffling clumsily through the warped landscape. Focusing his energy he made a similar electricity whip emerge from his left hand, he rotated both wrists quickly, throwing the electrified entities around and landing on the snow with a satisfying hiss of water vapour. He smiled at the creatures

"Bring it" he muttered, the creatures roared and stumbled toward him, Theo did the same, charging towards them, yelling like a madman, he swung on of the electric whips at the closest creature, slicing it clean in two, he continued to swing the whips around, blood splattering in his face. One of the creatures jumped at him, but Theo was too quick and too maddened, he flipped over the creature and grabbed the mutations head as he did so, twisting it and breaking the neck clean in two. He landed swiftly and in plain sight of two more of the warped entities, their mouths open in snarls, circular rows of teeth gleaming, Theo leapt up in the air before them, electric blades extending from his wrists and stabbed both of the creatures through the eye, popping the eyeball, they screamed and shrieked in agony until they all crashed down on the floor, forcing the blade further into their skulls, penetrating the brain, silencing them. Theo rose to his feet, he felt his arm being grabbed by one of the creatures, fearing what was going to happen, Theo lashed out with his right fist and landed a deadly right hook to the creatures ribs, breaking clean through them and penetrating the sea of muddled organs beneath the flesh. He felt around until he found something which felt like a heart of some description, he grabbed it and yanked it out, still pulsing in his hand, the creature gurgled, blood pouring from its mouth and collapsed dead in the snow. Tossing the useless organ aside, Theo charged, the electrical whips remerging from his wrists and sliced through the two advancing creatures, a thick mist of blood emerged from both wounds and coated Theos fur. He smiled and continued to tear and rip apart the creatures around him.

Meanwhile, Dr Eggman watch the footage of Theo slaughtering the human soldiers mercilessly, hand stroking his moustache, brow furrowed.

"Snivley" Eggman called, a figure stuck his head up from a control panel, it was a small man with a long thin nose and a bald scalp that shone in the light, except for six hairs that stuck up off the top on his head, as he approached his uncle, he kept his head down as if Eggmans gaze would piece him like miniscule daggers.

"Yes sir?" he muttered quietly

"What is the Mobians brain activity?" Eggman asked, eyes still on the giant screen displaying the live footage, at his uncles request, Snivley turned and ran sharply back to a control desk and began to tap buttons and pull switches as if his life depended on it,

"Alpha Waves are reading at 200% usual levels and Beta Waves are reading at…no that can't be correct"

"What can't be correct?" Eggman asked, suddenly alert and his gaze now directly focused on his nephew.

"It must be a glitch sir. I'll just reset the system and-"

Eggman slammed his fist on the arm of his chair in anger,

"Just tell me the god-damn reading!"

Snivley gulped and read the readings

"Beta Waves are reading at 1645% usual levels" Eggman frowned, and then chuckled,

"Well that explains it but also raises another question"

Snively looked at the scientist, confused,

"What's that, sir?"

Eggman lent back on his chair causing it to creak ominously

"If the Beta waves have increased then that means that something is altering the Mobians sensory neurones, causing them to feed a incomplete or entirely different signal to the brain. For example" He gestured at the scene before him "Look at how he kills those soldiers, such malice and savagery. No ordinary Mobian would kill with that kind of disregard to life, which leads me to conclude that the Mobian is hallucinating. And I believe…" Eggman tapped a few keys on his chair, the picture changed into a green three-dimensional netting of the original scene, code began to rush down either side of the screen at unreadable speeds and then a small text box appeared next to the net of Theo. The text inside read 'STATUS: UNDER HULLCINOGENIC' Eggman smiled "…That's what the reading says".

Snivley frowned then turned back to the madman

"That's all very good sir, but how did he get that hallucinogenic to effect him? He appeared fine mere minutes ago" Eggman glowered at his nephews stupidity and stroked his moustache intently,

"Weren't you paying attention Snivley? I said that _something_ was controlling him, by that I meant that some higher power is altering his perception" he frowned "As for _what _it is, that still remains to be seen. But it seems to me that this control is making the Mobian stronger, I need that power" Eggman stood up and barked at the whole bridge of the ship "Beam the Mobian up, I need to find that power for myself!"

Theo sliced through one more of the distorted creatures and staggered back, panting heavily, he had forgotten how many of the creatures he had killed but he had lost count from 30. He disembodied his electric whips in order to conserve his energy, the mysterious symbol began to blemish in the snow, like some crust of a unheard off disease, the clouds sped up in the sky until they were a blur, the buildings began to dart and move around faster and faster; time felt as if it was crashing around him, then it stopped. The creatures ebbed away into nothingness, the sky returned to its normal. The ruins of buildings fell back to their natural spot and reattached themselves to the ground. Confused, Theo staggered forward, his feet sinking into the snow with each step. Human blood stained the microscopic ice crystals all around him, their vessels ripped and torn bodies were cast about like some insane carpet put down by evil and decadence.

"What the hell?" Theo muttered to himself, the pain began to spike up in his leg again, causing him to grunt in pain with each step, he looked around, trying to recognise anything that would help him identify where he was, however nothing of the sort, sprung to attention.

"Great" Theo muttered sarcastically "As if my day couldn't get _any_ better" He picked up a discarded metal pole and used it to support himself "Right" Theo said, through chattering teeth, "I should try and find more Mobians and hopefully-

A floodlight glared up above him, lighting Theo up like a Christmas tree, he looked up and saw a giant battleship, dominating the sky, suffocating the light that penetrated the thick storm clouds. Theos stomach dropped,

"Oh no" Theo muttered, he lifted his hand up and fired bolts of electricity at the ship to no effect "Oh shit. Not him" Theo ran ignoring the pain in his leg, he stumbled and fell into the snow, which encompassed him immediately like a thick blanket. The light from the floodlight intensified and dominated his vision; he suddenly had a feeling of weightlessness. Then as quickly as it had started. He crashed down on a metal floor, with a groan, he looked up and saw a tall, fat man, dressed in a torn and discoloured red jacket and black trousers, he was bald, and his face was conquered by a long bushy brown moustache and his eyes were hidden behind dark glasses. Theo knew instantly who he was,

"Hey doc" Theo said, airily, even though his heart was pounding like there was no tomorrow "I take it that this isn't a social call". Eggman smiled,

"You talk as if you know me, Mobian. I wonder how that is" he clicked his fingers, Theo heard two pairs of cold, metallic footsteps approaching, he felt himself being dragged to his feet, a pair of freezing metal hands clasped on each arm. Eggman turned to the two robots who had Theo in their clutches. "Take him to Brig and string him up with the other prisoner". So with that the robots marched off, dragging Theo limply behind them.


	7. Inhuman

**A/N: These chapter features strong tortures so if you're sensitive about this, please skip ahead to the next chapter…. And in this chapter N3rm Ak37's OC Carmine will appear.**

The robots marched Theo towards a large metal door, Eggman a few steps ahead of them, hands clasped behind his back, humming an archaic tune to himself as if this was just any ordinary day. They stopped short of the towering door; Eggman typed a code into a large keypad that nestled in the gap between the door and a pillar. Seizing his chance, Theo tensed both his arms and sent bolts of electricity through them and into the robots, however their steel grip only tightened, bruising the flesh, making him wince.

"I wouldn't struggle if I were you" Eggman said, without looking at him "My robots are fitted with strong insulation which prevents any stray sources of electricity getting into them" Theo growled, Eggman finished pressing in the code into the keypad and the metal door slid open, revealing a deep dark room. The robots marched in with Theo being dragged behind, in their arms. The room was poorly lit and the one bright source of light flickered behind a rotating fan that cast its shadow across the room, chains hung from the wall and on the far wall was two chairs, similar to what you would find in a typical dentists surgery, on one of these was strapped a figure but the light was so poor, Theo couldn't make out any features. Eggman walked over to a large, rusting switch,

"Rise and shine, hedgehog!" He yelled and he threw the switch, the room lit up with the harsh artificial glow of filament lighting, which made Theo's eyes sting from the contrast between the room and the previous corridor. In the few milliseconds, of light induced blindness, Theo made out one feature of his fellow captor.

_Blue_

His stomach dropped, when his brain latched on to the immediate assumption and sure enough his suspicions were confirmed when his eyes adjusted to the light and he could see the details of the fellow prisoner. Strapped down on one of the infernal chairs, his fur stiff with blood, and resent, cauterised wounds littering his chest was Sonic the Hedgehog. However not the one that Theo had barely known, he had known him as quick-witted, clean and cocky, always willing to show off his tremendous speed, but the figure that was in front of him was different, he was beaten, humiliated, unkempt, bruises covering every available inch of skin, in places, like Theo, his fur was missing but as he was dragged forward to the second chair, he could see that it had been shaved and that deep wounds lay on the naked skin. His trademark shoes and gloves were bloody, torn and caked in dirt. He squinted at Theo as he approached, a look of shock and dread in his dull emerald eyes, Theo didn't blame him, to all the Freedom Fighters, he was dead, killed taking down his father and a whole demon army and here he was, one of the last demons left, in Eggmans clutches. The robots threw him down, hard onto the chair, and before he could respond, the robots fastened the straps on his arms and legs, pinning him to the chair.

Theo turned to look at Sonic,

"You look like shit"

The blue hedgehog seemed taken aback by this statement

"Wha- how- ?"

Theo sighed,

"Don't waste your breath".

"Leave us" Eggman ordered, the two robots obeyed and marched out of the room, the door slamming shut behind them, Humming to himself, he then strolled over to the corner of the room and wheeled over a decaying, old trolley that squeaked as he wheeled it over, on it lay a plethora of surgical equipment, complete with hypodermic needles, scalpels and even what looked like a buzz saw, all of which were encrusted with blood, most likely; Sonics. However on the lower shelf lay some other stranger items like, a steaming soldering iron, a hammer and a large bag of salt.

"So" Eggman muttered, picking up one of the scalpels and walking calmly over to where Theo was strapped down, "Lets start from the beginning. What is your name?"

"Kinky McDildo" Theo answered, smiling. Trying to show the scientist that he wasn't afraid, Eggman smirked slightly, then slashed one of Theos arm with the scalpel, thick, warm blood oozed out the gap in the flesh, but Theo only breathed in sharply through his teeth. Eggman looked into his eyes as if studying some interesting results then turned his back on Theo and replaced the scalpel, instead choosing to pick up a large razor and the soldering iron. He turned back to him; by this time, blood was starting to drip slowly down his arm, staining the arm of the chair.

"I will ask you again" Eggman repeated calmly "What is your name?"

"Piss off, baldy" Theo spat back in his face, it was a big mistake. Eggman grabbed Theos head, to prevent him from moving, he placed the razor on his cheek and began to apply some pressure, Theo winced as it broke the skin, and instinctively tried to move away, but Eggmans grip was strong. He moved the razor down his cheek, slicing through the flesh like the bow of a boat through the water, Theo yelled as the mad scientist slowly carved a deep gash in his face, Blood began to run down his cheek and into his mouth, staining his teeth a dark crimson.

Eggman put the razor in his pocket and, still holding onto Theos head, lowered the soldering iron closer to the wound, Theo could feel the heat ebbing off it, he began to struggle more, but Eggman held firm. The soldering iron made contact with his face, Theo screamed in agony as the soldering iron melted the flesh either side of the wound, slowly sealing it; he thrashed about wildly, trying to throw the scientist away from him, he tried charging up his body but nothing happened, as the soldering iron made contact with the blood, it dried it then blackened it into a thicker solid, he felt as if his face was on fire, so he wildly screamed out the answer Eggman wanted.

"Theo A-Arcreus!"

Eggman smiled then relinquished his grip on Theo's head and whipped away the soldering iron, Theos head lolled forward, free of its grip, he could feel the burnt flesh still drying on his skin. Eggman lifted Theos head to look at him.

"Arcreus? As in Captain Arcreus? Who died two years ago?"

"Y-yes" Theo breathed, shivering from the pain.

"Then tell me, Theo" Eggman said replacing the instruments on the trolley and picking up the large hammer "How did you come back?"

Theo braced himself for the pain, however Eggman noticed this and chuckled,

"Oh no. This isn't for you" he looked over at Sonic, who seemed to cower under his gaze, he casually strode over to where Sonic lay, swinging the hammer as he did so.

"Back to my question. How did you come back?"

"I don't know" Theo breathed. Eggman smirked,

"Really" He slammed the head of the hammer into Sonics ankle, there was a sickening crunching sound, and sonic yelled in agony again and again, every so often pausing for breath, "Do you remember now?"

"Stop it" Theo growled calmly, his eyes locked with the scientists

"Of course, just tell me the answer I desire"

"I've told you. I don't know" Eggman frowned,

"Hopefully _this_ will jog your memory" He struck Sonic in the chest with the hammer, Theo winced as he heard, the central support for the ribs snap and when Sonic let out another, blood-curdling scream, a stream of blood flowing from his mouth, his head fell forward,, tears mixing with blood then falling on his chest.

"I'm telling the truth!" Theo yelled "I just don't know", he strained his mind for any hint of how he got back, but whenever he did, pain jolted his mind, preventing him from delving any deeper into his memories. It was like the memories of Hell were too painful for him to remember and his mind was trying to put up a barrier between the sanity and the madness that must have occurred in the afterlife. Eggman and Theo looked at each other, Theo could almost feel the madman scrutinising him, like a bug under a microscope, trying to search out any flaw in his statement.

He frowned then turned away, tossing the hammer to the side with a loud clang.

"Computer" Eggman barked at an unseen intelligence "Bring up file on Theo Arcreus". There was a loud blipping sound and a green holographic screen, materialized in front of them, casting an eerie, artificial glow all around the torture chamber. An old profile picture of Theo appeared on screen and text began to surround it, which Eggman carefully studied. He looked at Theo and then looked back at the picture then back at him,

"Well, you've certainly been through the mill" Eggman said, he turned back to the screen "So, Mother: Unknown… Father: Mephiles the Dark…Joined GUN at 14 years old became Captain at 18. Died from an energy overload in 3164. Hmm… Your story seems to check out". Eggamn clicked his fingers and the screen dematerialized. The scientist picked up another scalpel from the trolley and approached Theo, he smiled psychotically, like a crazed surgeon,

"I saw you down there" He muttered, leaning towards Theo, he tried not to gag as Eggman's foul breath crept up his nose and began to overload his sensory neurones,

"Such power, such…destructive grace"

"Well I was terrified at the time" Theo spat out, his cheek burning from the recent cauterised wound.

"So I saw" Eggman said, his face so close to Theos, that the hedgehog could see the specks of grey in his moustache. Eggman backed away to study him like a botanist would study some newly discovered plant.

"You were under the influence of an hallucinogenic, which made you imagine something that wasn't actually-

"Yeah doc, I know what hallucinogenic do" Theo interrupted, Eggman growled and punched him across the face, snapping his head to the side, Theo began taste the coppery flavour of his blood on his tongue. He spat out a mouthful of blood on to the floor, and looked up at Eggman,

"And here I was thinking you could throw a decent punch"

"SHUT UP!" Eggman yelled, lashing out with a vicious right hook, which was so forceful that it cricked Theo neck at it lurched upwards.

"Ok" Theo breathed, blood flowing out his mouth "I'll give you that one". Eggman snarled and raised his bloody fist again, but then seemed to reject the idea, and lowered it. Instead he brought the scalpel out of his pocket and with one fluid downward movement, he stabbed it through Theos right hand, impaling it to the arm of the chair, dark red blood began to spurt violently out of the wound. Theo shrieked and thrashed around wildly, trying to get the scalpel out of his hand, but he only succeeded in cutting the flesh even more. Eggman grabbed him violently by the shoulders and yelled over his screams of pain,

"What did you see? There must have been some kind of trigger or symbol that was in your vision in order to give you that much power!"

"Eggman!" Sonic yelled, half in pain, half in anger "Leave the kid alone"

"SILENCE HEDGEHOG!" Eggman yelled spit flying out his mouth, his face getting slowly redder, he turned his attention back to Theo, "What was it? TELL ME!" Theo could see the desperation in the madman's face, although he acted like he had carte blanche, in reality Theo deduced that the conflict between the Mobians and the Humans that have ravaged and raped the world, must have driven the psychopath closer to the brink of reason, the current world offered a chance for him to build his empire, but the conflict also presented a double-edged sword which held him back, being so close to his dream, and yet so far, must have driven the scientist insane. And now here Theo was, a tantalising glimpse at absolute power, that Eggman could use to build a new world, but his obsession was starting to take hold of his sanity. Theo could almost imagine the great mechanism of a mind, breaking down, all the gears and cogs falling away like dust upon the wind.

When Theo failed to answer, Eggman grabbed the scapel and twisted it, carving away more of the flesh and sinew in his hand, and sending a fresh wave of blood pouring out of him. Theos yells intensified, he screamed until his throat burned from the over usage of his vocal chords. When no other answer came, Eggman snarled and turned to the trolley, knocking some items over in his haste, his hands fatened around the steel handle of the buzzsaw.

"If I can't get an answer" Eggman yelled, pulling the chord of the buzz saw, making it roar into life "I'll fish it out your brain and take the answer from your memories!" He raised the spinning blade to Theos head, the whirring of the buzz saw grew louder and louder as inch, by inch the blade grew nearer to his skull, Theo could see his terrified eyes reflected in the blades cruel metal surface, he closed his eyes and waited for a fresh wave of pain, followed quickly by eternal bliss. But then suddenly, Theo heard the unmistakable sound of the cough of a silencer, he opened his eyes; Eggman still with the manic smile on his face, crumpled to the floor, dead, a pool of blood beginning to form beneath him, as the buzz saw hit the floor, it cut through its own power chord and fell silent. Theo looked up from Eggmans body at their saviour.

In the open doorway was a black fox, dressed in a black t-shirt and cargo trousers, around his waist was the hilts of two swords, each with the blade missing, Theo noticed that the fox must have suffered an injury in the past as his right eye was a cloudy white with no pupil and the undeniable scars of a bullet graze surrounding it, however his left burned a fantastic violet. Currently he was still holding the silenced pistol on his hand, he looked from them to the dead body of the manic scientist then back to them.

"I think that's what they call, 'the nick of time'" He said, smiling. He tossed the gun aside then jogged over to Theo, he winced when he saw his injuries "Oh Jesus, you've been through hell" He softly grabbed the handle of the scalpel "Right, ok, on three". Theo nodded, teeth gritted

"Ok then, one" he pulled the scalpel out of Theos hand and tossed it at the body, which impaled in the dead mans back, new blood poured out of his hand, like a never-ending fountain. The fox quickly untied Theo then pulled out a antiseptic dressing out of his pocket and began to wrap up Theos hand tightly, making Theo yell in pain, he tried to stop the fox but he simply batted his hand away.

"For heaven shake stop being a big girl's blouses. It may hurt like a bitch but it was nothing compared to what happened to my eye" He finished the wrapping and then pulled Theo to his feet. Before Theo could thank him however, the fox went over to Sonic, the blue hedgehog looked at him with a look of astonishment on his face,

"Carmine? Is-is that you?"

Carmine quickly untied Sonic like he had done with Theo and then stopped,

"You alright walking on your own?" Carmine asked, holding out a helping hand,

"Not a chance in hell" Sonic breathed and gingerly, Carmine supported the hedgehog to his feet, his Sonics arm around his shoulder. Theo walked over to them,

"Hey Carmine? Thanks" Carmine turned

"I wasn't here for you" he snapped, Theo shrugged

"Well, yeah. Still, thanks" Carmine grunted in comprehension. The three of them exited the room and into the corridor, which was now littered with broken and smashed pieces of metal from the destroyed robots, Theo examined the carnage and whistled,

"Bloody hell, you really beat the fuck out of them"

Carmine smirked and continued to walk slowly forward, supporting Sonic around his waist with the hedgehogs arm around his shoulders.

"How did you find us?" Sonic asked Carmine, Carmine smiled,

"Never doubt Tails' intellect. It was the tracking devise that he put in your blood that led us to you". They turned a corner into a more cavernous room, again littered with the remains of mechanical soldiers.

"Hang on" Theo said, folding his arms and stopping to a halt "If you knew where he was, why does it still look like Sonic was in that torture chamber for days?"

"Well, we only had a faint signal, and it Nicole a while to triangulate it"

"How longs 'a while?'" Carmines eyes fell and became crestfallen

"About 10 days". Theo smirked and walked on, quietly saying under his breath,

"No wonder he looks like shit". The three of them walked onwards through more desolate and quiet corridors and rooms, all on them staying quiet in case there was some form of mechanism that would activate and kill them. Finally Sonic asked a question,

"Were you telling the truth to Eggman back there?" Theo turned and nodded,

"I honestly have no idea how I came back. But, I think I know who might be involved".

"Who?" Carmine asked, but Theo had his attention drawn to something else, a door on the opposite side on the gargantuan armoury where they were stood, was slightly ajar, and through the small crack, Theo could see a shaft of green light and what looked like the outlines of machinery.

"Dimitri" Theo whispered quietly and without warning began to run towards it, his mind now polluted with a new determination, He slammed his shoulder into the door, making it bang open, inside, as he has suspected was a bank of computers with a large screen at its heart, which cast green light from the coding on the screen around the room. Theo ran towards the nearest keypad and began to type furiously like the madman it had once served. Carmine and Sonic appeared in the doorway, the black fox breathing hard from supporting Sonics weight, Carmine lowly helped him to a sitting position on the floor and joined Theo at the gargantuan computer.

"What are you looking for?" Carmine asked, trying to read the text that flashed on screen,

"If Dimitri worked for Eggman, he must have put a tracker on him; he does to all his soldiers and robots so it seems logical to have done it to him too" Theo said quickly

"Hang on! Why Dimitri?"

Theo slammed his finger on the ENTER key and a map of the globe appeared on screen, a red circle appeared on screen and began to move around the continents, as the computer triangulated the echidnas position.

"I think Dimitri may have used some of his technology to resurrect me. And since this is one of the biggest memory hard drives I know about"

"It may give you his position" Carmine finished, Theo nodded. The map zoomed in on the northern continent and the circle continued to move.

"Where are we? By the way"

Carmine groaned in exasperation,

"Is there no end to your ignorance?" He stood on tiptoes and pointed at the south east part of the continent "We're here, in the ruins of Casino City" **(A/N. Casino Night Zone BTW).**

Then suddenly, the map began to fuzz and move with static, Theo slammed his fist onto the keyboard,

"Fuck! The signals too weak, I need to download the information then run it on a more powerful system. This things useless" he gave one of the memory banks a sharp kick.

"To you, maybe. But to me, It may prove useful" Carmine pushed passed him and began to type on the keyboard, occasionally looking up to look at the screen, a look of concern on his face. After around 30 seconds of typing, Carmine looked up at the screen once again, and read the text on screen. Then without talking took out an SD card and inserted it into one of the memory banks, Theo couldn't see his face but he guessed by his body language that he was crying. Just then, Carmine tossed the SD card to Theo,

"Here's the information on Dimitri, I think you'll be able to use Nicole to track him down, once we get back of course" he looked at Sonic as if for confirmation and the hedgehog nodded, then began to cough violently, blood dripping from his mouth. Carmine rushed overand scopped him up into his arms, presumably to move around faster,

"We need to get him out of here, and fast!" Theo nodded and the three began to jog out of the room and back into the giant armoury, Carmine nodded towards a door on the right and Theo kicked it open, revealing a set of spiral stairs and let Carmine through with Sonic in his arms,

"What were you looking for back there?" Theo asked Carmine, the fox simply grunted and continued to climb up the metal steps,

"I'll tell you once we get to an escape pod"

"Are you crying?"

Carmine growled,

"Shut up"

Theo raced on ahead to the very top of the stairs were a large metal door stood, solid and imposing,

"Guys" Theo called down "I think we've hit a dead end", Carmine emerged from the lower levels of the staircase, breathing fast and deep from the rapid ascension of the staircase, Carmine looked at the door and narrowed his eyes, examining around its frame for any switch or button that would unlock it, he cursed, and turned back

"Come on, we've got to go" Theo turned to follow, but then paused when he saw the two enormous hinges that were attached to its study frame.

"Wait" Theo said, charging up his uninjured hand "Stand back" He raised his hand and he let loose two continuous arcs of electricity onto the hinges, the metal began to heat up and glowed red, he focused even more on the flow of raw electricity from his hand, causing the metal to melt as the heat tore apart its molecular structure. Theo then clenched his fist, charging up his hand, to the point where the electromagnetic field from the electricity, was drawing in small magnetic objects, causing them to float in the air surreally. At that moment and with a yell, Theo thrust his arm forward, letting loose a shockwave that tore the door of its molten hinges and crashing into the room beyond.

Carmine examined the handy work, and smirked,

"Nice trick"

"Thanks" Theo replied, and without waiting, pushed past Carmine and Sonic and into the room that had just been accessed. The room was lit with dim, low level lighting, pieces of machinery lay around the place, either rusting or in various states of disrepair, the room looked like it had been abandoned long ago and left to die by its creator. The far wall was dominated by a gigantic, round, steel blast door with a huge red wheel in the centre. Cautiously, Theo edged forward and grabbed the wheel and began to try and turn it, there was a loud squeal of metal scratching against metal, and the wheel began to turn; deactivating the locks that were holding the blast door closed. With one mighty effort, Theo pulled on the wheel, forcing the steel goliath to swing forth; behind the great door was a small pod, with two cushioned benches set on either wall and a large monitor complete with a key board set into the back wall, judging by its texture and it's thickness, Theo judged that the roof of the vessel appeared to be made of bullet proof glass.

"Bingo" Carmine said and rushed forward into the pod, Theo hot on his heels, the fox laid Sonic down on one of the benches and preceded to examine his injuries in more detail, he turned to Theo,

"His injuries are bad, we need to get back to base as quickly as we can" He left the blue hedgehog's side and began to type what looked like coordinates into the screen, "Close the hatch". Theo obeyed and pulled the door shut, causing the locks to slide shut with a bang.

"Where are we going?" Theo asked,

"New Knothole" Carmine said

"What?"

"You heard me" Carmine said, clicking enter on the keypad, with a roar of a hidden engine and a sudden jerk; the pod detached itself from the ship and began to fly through the storm towards its destination. Theo sat down on the free bench and looked at Carmine, still typing at the computer.

"What were you looking for back there?"

Carmine sighed; he stopped typing and sat down next to Theo,

"I'm Lieutenant Carmine Masters of the mobian sector of GUN. But, I wasn't always that. Before the war, I ran a small market store in a town on the coast, it was nice, everyone was helpful and friendly. I had a wife who eventually gave me my most precious thing in the entire world, my son. He was beautiful, he never cried and he always seemed to know if something was wrong with you." Carmine sighed yet again, and Theo could tell that it pained him to remember his family "Our town escaped the initial bombardment from the humans, we heard of other towns and cities that had been reduced to nothing more than piles of flaming rubble. But somehow I knew that we couldn't escape for long. Early one morning, some large battleships appeared over the horizon, people thought that they belonged to Mobians but, they were wrong. Smaller, armoured barges landed on the beach, each carrying about 40 soldiers. They marched into the town, I was dragged out of my home with my wife and son, they split us up and." Carmine gulped, tears running down his face "They raped my wife first, then when she could take no more, they shot her. Then they broke all the bones in my son's body, along with all the other children, and shot them once their mangled bodies couldn't do anything. I was put in a line with the other men, against a wall, facing a firing squad, but just then, the Mobian sector of GUN appeared, armed to the teeth. Whilst the humans were preoccupied, I was grabbed and thrown inside one of their armoured vehicles, and well here I am two years on. I used that computer to try and find whether any other members of my family were still alive but." He shook his head.

"I'm so sorry" Theo said

"Don't be. I don't need your pity…Demons don't need pity"

"What?" Theo asked confused

"I'm a demon. OK? During one of my first missions, this demon knocked me down and…it bled in my mouth. I became one of them, in an instant.".

"Well, I'm one too, but I was born one"

Carmine snorted "Bullshit"

"I'm telling the truth"

"Well you can keep on telling the truth until we reach New Knothole" Carmine closed his eyes, a final tear dripping down his cheek "I could use some entertainment".

**A/N: Well that's the end of that chapter, hope you guys enjoyed it and I hope I got Carmines character and back-story right. Remember to spread word of this story to other FanFiction writers, as I would love to have a verity of people giving feedback. To those who have added me to their favourite authors list, thank you and I hope you will review and give positive feedback. **


	8. Crystal Desert

**A/N: Thanks for the feedback guys; it really has made me think long and hard about the story. Anyway on with chapter 8.**

New Knothole was commissioned by King Elias and was built in 3162 in top secrecy in an unknown location. Elias kept the project secret from all, including his family and the Freedom Fighters, in order to prevent news getting to his enemies; all files on it were destroyed and all data was erased, all knowledge was quenched from existence, the manufacturers and constructors had their minds erased of their previous task, all to ensure that top secrecy was maintained. Then in the beginning of 3165, near the very beginning of the war, when New Metropolis was being decimated, King Elias, gathered up the remaining citizens and Freedom Fighters and fled to New Knothole. Like its predecessor, New Knothole was located in a hard to reach place, but unlike the original Knothole, this one had EMP generated scattered around it, creating a magnetic field that redirected radar and infra-red signals, and thanks to a great generator in the centre of New Knothole, the city was protected visibility shield, meaning that all outside the field wouldn't be to see the city, thus making it invisible. However, New Knotholes greatest defence was that fact that it was situated in a place where the humans wouldn't look, in the air.

It was the greatest thing that the Mobians had created, and now it kept them all safe from the madness that now plagued the world, allowing them to live their lives in relative peace. This was where a small escape pod, bound from the Egg Carrier and carrying three passengers was now heading. Inside, Theo was asleep, his head leaning against one of the metal poles, snoring softly; Carmine was busy at the controls of the escape pod, occasionally scanning the environment to check whether they were near to there destination. His eyes flashed between the sleeping demon and the unconscious blue hedgehog, who was breathing shallowly and fast, as his body tried to cope with the injuries that he had received. The memory of his families slaughter was still fresh in Carmines mind, and it snaked into his minds eye whenever he thought of anything. He shuddered to think of all the pain and suffering that he had been through in his past, he stood back from the controls and gently shook Theo awake.

"Can you take the controls for a bit" Carmine asked, Theo groaned and stretched

"Yeah" he yawned " Yeah, you get some sleep" Theo rose and vacated his seat for Carmine. He cracked his back, and went over to the controls of the pod. The sky above was slowly brightening as the night dissolved into day, the clouds slowly becoming thinner and thinner as they moved further north. Theo pressed a few buttons on the controls and looked at the screen, which now displayed a geographical map of the terrain beyond. Over the next few minutes, he continued to make adjustments to the controls so that he knew everything there was to know about the environment through which they were travelling. If what Carmine had told him about New Knothole was true, he wouldn't know whether he was near it until they had pierced the visibility shield, so until then he would have to continue following the coordinates. The screen suddenly began to flicker and sputter, Theo slammed his hand against the side of the monitor in an attempt to get it working, but instead of aiding it, his actions instead made the entire screen die into a mass of static.

"How the hell?" Theo muttered, he turned to Carmine, but instead found the impossible. Carmine was no longer there, he had disappeared, all traces of him had simply faded from existence. He turned sharply to his other side, where he presumed Sonic would be, but like Carmine, he was now gone, consumed by an unknown entity so nothing remained.

Theo looked closely around the pod, checking for anything that could tell him where the two had disappeared to, but nothing presented itself. His head burned as he felt the oh so familiar sensation of his mind now performing summersaults as his brain was squeezed and distorted. A high pitched squealing bloomed in the air around him, overloading his eardrums, perforating them then repairing them in an instant, the symbol (**A/N: the symbol is a red swirl with a large cross going through its centre (many of you asked so I thought I should put it in)**, began to appear around him, blooming like bacteria all around the pod, like all the other occasions when he had witnessed this symbol, they were all red and all in various degrees of neatness, some looking like they had been carefully crafted and designed by a master artist, whilst others were no better than a toddlers finger painting. The intense noise deafened Theo, causing him to clamp his hands over his ears and noiselessly yell at the pain and of the dread of the oncoming madness. There was a sudden scream of tearing metal and smashing glass as the pod piled into the ground, sand filled the air, cascading into the warped interior, Theo was thrown to the ground, feeling the warm sand pour over him, he felt blood start to drip out of his nose, he felt as if the room was spinning, he tried to pull himself up but, his head burned too much, so he gently pulled himself to his feet.

The pod was smashed beyond believe, the metal was torn and twisted with and scraps of glass lay around, shafts of sunlight filtered through the holes along with cascading falls of golden sand. Outside, wherever he was, he could hear the winds beginning to increase in speed, without hesitation, Theo crammed his fist through one of the holes, tearing the glove into bloody shreds, grabbing an edge of the tear, he pulled and peeled more of the metal away, the razor-sharp metal, cutting into his hand, sending a stream of blood flowing down the alloy surface and pooling in the sand at his feet.

"I'm going to need a Tetanus jab after this" he grunted, with another wince, he tore a metal panel from the wall and threw it aside; revealing the distorted world beyond. Stepping from his claustrophobic vessel, he found a changed world beyond, it seemed to resemble a desert but it was so warped that Theo found it hard to judge. Giant tornados, golden from the sand rushed across the landscape, tearing away the grey crystal structures that grew from the desert at a fast rate, when they were torn away Theo thought he could hear screaming on the wind, almost as if the crystals were alive and were screaming in their denial at continuity; only to be replaced by a new crystal seconds later. A humongous black hole dominated the sky, causing the night- time heavens to rotate around them as if the black hole was a giant plughole and the sky was mere water, unable to escape the waters grasp.

Out of the dusty shadows emerged a figure, his mechanical limbs glinting in the swirling starlight, his black cloak billowing behind him as the wind roared around them. Theo could tell even from a distance who this person was. Dimitri. The robotic echidna halted about twenty metres away from Theo, his artificial eyes boring into his own.

"What going on?" Theo asked, his fists clenched so tightly the dressing around his injured hand tore, causing blood to start to drip down onto the sand, where it was instantly absorbed, sucked down by the living desert beneath them. Dimitri chuckled,

"Leviathan. Mr Arcreus. Although." He looked at Theo, a smile forming on his mouth "That isn't your real name is it?"

Theos eyes narrowed,

"What"

"Theodore Arcreus, that isn't your real name. But we won't dwell on that."

Theo growled,

"What's Leviathan then?"

Dimitri began to pace towards him, his head low, hands clasped behind his back,

"Imagine a theory. One rule that could dominate our lives without us knowing it. Then imagine being able to control that rule. What would you become if you had the rules of life at your disposal?"

"In English please" Theo asked, charging his fists up, causing the blood soaking them to boil. Dimitri laughed then looked straight up at Theo, his eyes gleaming with a hidden pride.

"Basically. I can do this." He clicked his fingers, suddenly; Theo felt something weird pass over him, as if the air was draining him. Before the unknown curse could take effect, Theo tried to charge up his fists even more, but nothing happened. He tried again, still nothing; then he realised what Dimitri had done. He had drained his powers from him; his main advantage and amplifier had gone. He felt…weak, venerable.

"What have you done?" Theo said, still trying to get his powers to show themselves, but to no avail.

"Simple. I altered your past in immeasurably fine ways but, it all lead to you losing your powers."

"Time-travel" Theo stated.

Dimitri shook his head "No. The Leviathan Theory; it basically states that one ordinary man could in theory, alter the future by just completing a simple decision like, to turn left or right; or to call someone or not call them. For example if your turned left instead of right, you may never meet someone who could have become one of your friends, who may offer you a job, which would give you more money and you'd charge more peoples lives from doing your job."

"What's that got to do with me?"

"Everything" Dimitri said, his robotic eyes full of dark malice "Your smallest decisions changed the very course of time."

"What?" Theo said

"Have you ever considered that this war was your fault?"

"SHUT UP!" Theo yelled, running towards him, bleeding fists raised; even though his powers were now missing, he was still determined to rip Dimitri apart. Dimitri backed away slightly and then suddenly blasted Theo backwards in a burst of energy, sending him sprawling backwards into the sand. Dimitri simply stood there and observed him, as if he was some scientific experiment. Theo rose to his feet, brushing the sand off his ripped suit.

"Nice trick" he said "But I'm still going to kill you"

"Go on then" Dimitri said, laughing, pulling a long barrelled, thin-bodied revolver from his cloak and tossing it on the ground near Theo. He then stood back and spread his arms and raised his head up towards the warped sky "End me". Theo darted forward and pulled the revolver from the sand, and quickly raised it at Dimitri with his ancient soldiers instinct. He hesitated and squeezed the trigger, slowly, but suddenly, before the trigger was fully pulled. The warped, mangled creatures he had seen earlier rose from the sand, as if buried there for centuries. He immediately turned and shot the closest atrocity, causing its head to lurch back as the bullet powered into its skull. However for the one that had fallen, more were appearing in its place, and without his powers he was weakened, but not useless. One of the creatures reached out and made a snatch at Theo, however before it's rotten hand reached him, Theo grabbed it, slamming his other palm into the elbow, dislocating it with a sickening crack then performing an elbow strike to its stomach, causing its body to lurch forward, then finally smashing his fist into the creatures jaw in a lethal uppercut, knocking it backwards into the sand, where it was consumed by the living desert. Dimitri watched him with a small smile on his face, hands behind his back his cloak billowing behind him,

"What are these things?" Theo yelled at Dimitri, kicking the knee of the nearest creature, snapping it backwards, causing it to fall screaming in agony.

"These Mr Arcreus are fragments of your own mind" Dimitri said, "These are the darkest remnants of the original timeline".

"What the hell do you mean?" Theo yelled, jumping over one of the creatures and wrapping his legs around its neck and with a twist, snapping it.

"Think Theodore, just think" Theo searched his mind to try and find an answer to Dimitri's enigma, hunting around every memory and fleeting glimpse in order to find the answer. Then it hit him.

"My memories" He breathed, picking up a long jagged piece of crystal and pointing it at any advancing creature, "What are you doing to them?"

"I'm altering your timeline, each decision we make creates parallel worlds where different things happen, and this creates neuro-dimentional energy, the bigger the decision, the more energy is produced. If one could harness that energy, they could be a god. You maybe wondering why I'm telling you this, I'm doing it because you are now powerless to stop me" With another click of his fingers, the creatures disappeared, dissolving into the air. Theo turned to face Dimitri, the blood soaked crystal still in his right hand, the revolver in the other, With a flick of his wrist, Theo emptied the barrel of the revolver, letting the empty shells fall, smoking into the sand, and tossed the now useless gun aside. He now raised the long, blood-spattered crystal to point at Dimitri.

"En Garde!" Theo said, his eyes shooting daggers at Dimitri. The robotic scientist laughed,

"As you wish", with this remark two long thin blades began to emerge from just above Dimitri's wrists, polished and glinting in the light, suggesting they had been rarely used. Then without warning, Dimitri rushed forward and sliced at Theo, however the demon managed to step back just in time, and lunged at Dimitri with the blood soaked crystal. Dimitri lifted one of his blades and blocked the crystal, causing it to splitter into hundreds of piece with a loud crack. Dimitri flicked his wrist and the crystal fell to pieces before him, leaving holding the useless, jagged stump.

"Ah" Theo said, glancing at the shining remains "Can't we just talk". Dimitri smirked, and slammed his foot into Theo's gut, sending him flying backwards. As he landed, he felt something snap in his shoulder causing him to scream in pain, as trapped nerves fired randomly in a symphony of hurt, he was completely encapsulated, paralyzed by the intense pain and also by the fear of knowing that he had no way of stopping Dimitri from altering his timeline, but one question still burned in his mind. Why? Why was Dimitri doing all this? Why did he go to all the trouble of breaking into_ his _timeline? Dimitri swaggered over, scrapping his two blades together with a sound that chilled him to the bone. When he reached him, Dimitri lazily kicked him over onto his back, causing Theo to groan in pain, placing one of his metal feet on Theo's neck, Dimitri raised one of the blades so the tip was pointing at the demons forehead, Theo screwed up his eyes, expecting Dimitri to end his life in one swift movement, but Dimitri simply gazed at him, he supposed that this came from spending several lifetimes being a scientist; perhaps he didn't consider people as people anymore, merely bacteria in a Petri-dish.

"I won't kill you" Dimitri muttered, "I want you to see how powerless you are against me, how brains conquers brawn. How _I_ only allow you to live, because I want it". The world began to dissolve around him, reality bleeding through into its normal state.

"See you soon, Mr Arcreus"….

**A/N: Sorry for the delay with Christmas and all, updates will be slower, mainly due to my exams and I want to draft the rest of this story (It will be longer than Messiah). See ya soon! **


	9. Homecoming?

**A/N: Here we go with the next chapter…**

Theo's eyes snapped open, sharply as if he had been shocked, the blindingly blue sky seared his retinas, causing him to cover the with his free arm. As the sudden glare of the new days sun ebbed away, pain returned to him, a vast agony that coated his broken shoulder and his injured hand, which Carmine had bandaged up earlier, causing his to moan in agony. He rolled over onto his front, in an effort to see where he was, as his inverted vision righted itself; he found that he was in a small town square, with a large statue of what looked like King Maximillian in the centre, surrounded by small pruned bushes; the buildings towered around him, all metallic and sleek like a stealth plane, joined to each other by something similar to monorail, however on one side of the square, there were no buildings, just a long sleek railing, which seemed to overlook onto the tops of the seething mass of storm clouds bellow them. He could know hazard a guess as to where he was. New Knothole. They had made it; they had reached civilization that wasn't intent on killing them. Groaning slightly, Theo pushed himself up to his feet, cradling his busted shoulder when he rose. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something, turning he found the remains of their pod, smashed into the pavement about 60 metres to his left, its metal surface was torn and battered, and guessing by the range and trajectory of the debris, Theo guessed that he had been flung out it. But when he thought about it harder, he realised that this was impossible, the pod had crashed into the desert. Hadn't it? And he had broken his shoulder in his confrontation with Dimitri. Hadn't he? As he thought more and more, he became more confused between what had happened here in this war-torn world and the illustrious dream world that Dimitri had forged, both felt equally real, he knew the dream wasn't real. Didn't he?

He tried to charge his left hand, but nothing happened, he tried again this time with his whole body, still his powers failed to appear. Theo frowned, the loss of his powers didn't bother him much, it just meant that he had to rely on his combat training a lot more, and that he would have to build up some muscle. It was the fact that what had happened in the dream had affected him here, and that meant, that all Dimitri said about being able to alter his timeline was true.

"Hey!" Theo turned to see a group of people running towards him, led by Carmine, Ike and Fever, from what he could tell some civilians were in the crowd too. He raised his uninjured hand in greeting, grinning weakly. Ike was the first to reach him, his black fur clean and well groomed unlike when the two first met, the scars surrounding one of his eyes looked cleaned and correctly disinfected however his studded jacket was still torn and bloody, as if he had made no effort to clean it.

"You look like shit," he said, banging fists with Theo, Theo grinned

"You try being tortured by a sadistically bastard" Theo replied, "I thought you lot were killed when our helicopter was hit".

"Well thankfully, our pilot was damn good, me and Fever managed to shoot down the helicopters following us and we landed back in New Knothole, relatively unharmed. Although between you and me," he leaned in close to whisper "I would have preferred to bomb the shit out of the humans families, destroy the future generations, show them what we've lost" he leaned back, Theo didn't reply, he hadn't expected Ike to reveal himself as have such a lust for pure slaughter. The children were innocent; they didn't know much about why the war started so they weren't to blame. But clearly people like Ike didn't think that way.

He was knocked out of his thought by Fever approaching him and giving him a hearty, slap on the back, which promptly made Theo wince,

"Nice to see you're not a bloody smudge on the floor"

Theo smiled "What? You have no faith in me Fever"

"Well to be honest, only I would survive a fall like that"

"And you could do this how?" Theo asked rolling his hand in the 'continue' motion. Ike coughed "God" under his breath, Theo raised an eyebrow,

"You're a god?"

Fever shrugged "Well, technically…yeah"

"Along with a demon _and_ a vampire?"

"Yeah, I think you knew my Dad" As the three walked, others appeared, some of them whispering in hushed tones,

_Is that really him?_

_That's Theo Arcreus?_

_How can he be back?_

Theo turned to look at Carmine who was busy looking over the railing, at the new morning sky, with its light pink clouds drifting lazily on the unseen breeze.

"Hey!" Theo yelled at him, Carmine turned and even from a distance, Theo could see the sad memories reflected in his eyes, "Aren't you coming with us?"

"No" Carmine said back, he turned back to the sky, "I just need some time alone".

The three continued walking on, Theo wasn't certain were their destination was but he guessed it was to a hospital of some description,

"Anyway" he said to Fever "Who's your Dad?"

"His name's Mike McAlister" Fever said, matter-of-factly, Theo paused,

"What?"

"Mike McAlister, he said that he knew you"

Theo sighed, "He did, yeah. He was my partner on one of my first missions, he taught me quite a few things, how to fight, how to control my powers more efficiently. He was like an older brother to me. We worked together for around five months, but then he took off and went, something about a demon plot, I tried to go with him but he said was wasn't ready. Later on in my life, I leant that he was a demon and…I felt…grateful, I know knew that I wasn't the only good demon on this planet. After that, I didn't here from him again."

Fever shrugged "Last I heard he was fine, but with this bloody war going on, nobody can be sure."

Ike laughed and clapped Fever on the back, causing him to stumble forward a little,

"Demons are hardy little bastards, he'll be fine, Fever". Fever nodded his agreement, but Theo could see the hint of doubt in his eyes, The three walked towards a large building, shaped like a cone, its smooth surface glinting in the early morning sun, Theo guessed that this building was the hospital, and judging by the look of it, he'd say that it looked like all hospitals should, sterile and safe, a haven for medicine and surgery. But as they opened the doors and entered the foyer, Theo's presumptions came crashing down. Bodies were piled up in two rows either side of the corridor, all with flees buzzing around their deceased flesh, the vile smell wafted up to greet them, causing Theo to gag, and turn away, his mouth over his nose and mouth, as if the air was polluted with the scourge of death. Fever and Ike merely stood there, sad looks in their eyes, wearily admiring the cluster of dead Mobians that lay either side of them.

"Poor bastards" Fever muttered, he tapped Theo on the shoulder "Come on mate, we need to get you to a doctor".

"But how come? The bodies?" Theo said, but he was cut short by the double doors at the end of the passage, opening and shutting with a snap, Theo recognised the figure as a aged Dr Quack, complete with eye patch and a look that made him look like someone had just dropped down dead in his surgery, which judging by the bodies; was probably the case.

"We keep the bodies here because there is simply no other place to put them. We have a cremation bonfire every week but until them, we keep them here. So we call this corridor" he gestured at the bodies "The Corpses Walkway". Quack approached them and Ike grabbed Theo by the arm and pushed him forward, ahead of them, causing him to yelp in surprise, Quacks eye went wide,

"So, Julie-Su was telling the truth…your back" Quack, looked him over, glancing at his multiple injuries "Hmm, but you did come back in a state, lets go to my surgery, I can give you a proper look over there". The duck turned and walked back the way he came, the three of them hot on his heels, Theo still kept his distance from the bodies, they reminded him all to clearly of the slaughter he had done, the dozens of lives _he _had taken, the hundreds of families _he _had torn apart, the countless children who know wonder where their daddy or mommy had gone. He had redeemed himself slightly by stopping a demon invasion and preventing Rafael from being resurrected, but he knew that there were still families out there that knew what he did, and he knew that their influence would bar his acceptance back into the arms of his friends and companions.

Dr Quack pushed open the double doors, and a raw torrent of noise flooded through, occupied beds crammed the hallways and over flowed from wards with the bitter soundtrack of the sounds of crying and screaming children filling the air like battle fumes. Doctors looked stressed as they hurried from patient to patient, dealing with their problems partly before rushing off towards another client. The air stunk with the smell of vomit and excrement, which was amplified from the sheer magnitude of people that had been piled into this hospital.

"No wonder so many people are dying" Theo said, swirling round a bed containing an elderly fox who looked like he was on his last legs or leg in his case, "Hospitals appear to have taken a turn for the worst". Dr Quack rounded on him, his index finger outstretched and pointing at Theo in an accusing manner,

"This is the best we could do, we have injured people rushing in by the minute, and_ you_ think that this is crap, well it may be for you living all high and mighty. But some of us have to help other and must lead normal lives!" Quack yelled at him, Theo blinked then raised his hands in apologue.

"Right" Quack breathed "Though here", they walked through the gaggle of the injured and towards a door with Dr Quacks name inscribed on the front. The doctor banged it open and marched them into a small surgery with two chairs by the door and an examination bed covering the far wall, cabinets and work surfaces were attached to any other available area of wall space, unlike the rest of the hospital, this place was clean and sterile, and judging by its cleanliness, he guessed that the room was only used for the high ranking. Quack motioned for Theo to sit on the examination bed,

"Remove your jacket and your shirt please"

Theo tossed his jacket at the seated Fever and Ike, which landed in their laps then undid the buttons of his torn and bloody shirt and tossed that at the two as well, although this time Ike caught the shirt as it sailed majestically though the air. Quack picked up a stethoscope and placed it around his neck, Secondly, the duck pulled over a trolley containing medical instruments; hyperaemic needles, thermometers, antiseptic solutions and several empty syringes. Theo shuddered, the memories of torture still hung with him and their painful reminders still burned through his subconscious. Quack placed the stethoscope in his ears and placed the receiver on Theo's chest, causing him to inhale sharply as the cold metal touched his skin, Quack listened for a half a minute, and then picked up a clipboard and noted his heart rate,

"Your heart rate is unusually fast" he stated as he noted it down "I'd say at least 110 bpm". Next he picked up an empty syringe and grasped Theos wrist with a vice like grip, causing the black veins on his arm to become more predominant, and with one fell move, inserted the needle into the skin and pulled back on the plunger, extracting some of his dark red blood, causing him to flinch slightly.

"Your blood results will be clarified in around 4-6 weeks" Quack muttered,

"Why? What are you expecting to find?" Theo asked,

"Well, hopefully whatever's causing the decay of your flesh, it can be a multitude of things, NIDS, Fermis Syndrome, Cartlolisys, we just need to find what it is, and treat it. Although," He pulled out a torch and looked into Theos pupils "Your body seems to be fighting it slightly".

"Well that's nice to know" Theo said sarcastically.

"Anyway lets have a look at these injuries" Quack muttered.

**Several painful hours later…**

Theo stepped out of the hospital with a gasp; he had been holding his breath all the way down the Corpses Walkway, and now what his first proper chance to take a breath of unpolluted air. Quack had deduces that the shoulder was not broken, merely dislocated, and quickly relocated it, much to Theos pain and discomfort, he had then disinfected the torture wound on his cheek, carefully picking out the bits of solder as he did so, before sowing it up with Carbolic stiches. And finally he had wrapped up his injured hand before placing it in a sling. However Quack couldn't determine what had caused his powers to fade away, Quack thought that the hallucinations had something to do with it, but Theo disagreed, he had blamed Dimitri, but Quack had dismissed it at nonsense, and explained that Dimitri had been missing for over a year and he was presumed dead, he had tried to convince him the opposite but he knew it was no use, after all who would listen to him? A resurrected soldier who seemed to be on the brink of paranoia at something that nobody apart from him. After the door to the hospital closed behind him, Theo looked from his feet and saw a crowd, larger than the one that had initially greeted him, but deathly silent.

Children were looking from behind their parents legs, many didn't know who he was, but the atmosphere of fear kept them silent, almost as if the whole crowd share one whole consciousness. As Theo walked, the crowd parted allowing him through them, as he did so, whispers erupted in the crowd, all a mix of emotion, some joyous at his return while others cried in fear. At the far end of the crowd stood King Elias, in the same clothes that he wore when Theo had first met him, but his face seemed hardened from the amount of war and death that he had seen, by his side stood Shadow, who had a expression of shock on his pale face, his quills looked long and matted with blood, which made him look even more fearsome than he already was. When he was about six feet away from them Theo stopped, and looked at the two of them, his eyes boring into theirs.

"Theo" Elais said,

"Elias" Theo replied, no emotion in his voice,

"So the rumours are true then?" Shadow asked "You're back"

"Well obviously" Theo said

"You seem displeased about this" Elias said

"I know what I did Elias, I _never_ asked to be brought back" Theo said,

"But some of us wanted you back" Theo turned to see someone he thought he would never see again, Blaze, she looked unchanged from the first time they met, even though two years had passed. He had forgot how intoxicating her presence was, and how whenever she was near him, his worries seemed to die.

"Blaze" Theo gulped "Long time, no see"

"You're back"

"Yep"

"And you're perfectly fine"

"Yeah" Theo lied, he didn't feel like telling her about how Dimitri seemed to be manipulating his life like an artist at a painting. Blaze then without warning ran up and hugged him, throwing her arms around his neck, Theo was a little taken aback at first but he then put his hands about her waist and hugged back, burying his head into her shoulder. Blaze then looked up at him and he looked back at her, their eyes gazing at each other with wonderment, Theo leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips then quickly pulled away,

"I still never got you that drink" he said, grinning slightly. Elias cleared his throat and the two broke apart,

"Anyway" Elias said "Pleasantries aside. I need your help".

"With the war?" Theo asked, Elias nodded.

"You see, we're losing horribly, despite our advantages, the humans are killing us off, one by one, you saw how many corpses were in the hospital, we're desperate. That's why people like you, Shadow and Blaze over there are so valuable, you all have powers and that means-"

"I don't" Theo said

"What?" Elias asked, Shadow turned to him with an obscene curiosity in his red eyes.

"My powers…They're gone"

"Gone?" Shadow asked "How?"

"I don't know" Theo lied "But that's why I need_ your_ help"

"With what?" Blaze asked, curious.

"I need to know everything about Dimitri"

Shadow frowned "Dimitri? Knuckles' ancestor?"

"Yes"

"So you think he has something to do with this?" Elias asked, intrigued

"No" Theo lied "I just…have this feeling". Elias turned his attention to the attentive crowd,

"Go!" he barked "All of you", like cockroaches escaping from the light the crowd hurried away, leaving the square deserted and silent.

"It looks like we have a deal" Elias said "You help us fight in the war, and I'll try and help you with this Dimitri situation, deal?" he outstretched his hand, Theo hesitated at first but then clasped Elias hand with his own,

"Deal"

Elias smiled "Good" he clapped his hands and six brute guards emerged out of the crowd, all carrying a long thin box, with a variety of locks clasped to its sides, they placed it down with a loud, echoing bang and then sidled off into the crowd.

"Have you had that there the whole time?" Theo asked, smirking slightly

"Just in case you accepted our deal" Elias said, he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a large, spikey key which he passed to Shadow, who proceeded to walk over to the box and inserted the key into each padlock causing them to drop to the floor with a loud clang.

"Whats in that thing?" Theo asked, looking over Elias shoulder, then suddenly, the world shifted ever so slightly, like in a film shot on aged tape, the others around him didn't notice it but Theo noticed it and his heart darkened

"Not here" He thought "Not now". As Shadow pulled off the last padlock, the world shifted once again, and Theo knew that he only had minutes before Dimitri would try and claim him again. Suddenly Elias broke the silence,

"We found this sometime ago, Rotor thought that the runes on it were demonic script, either to enhance its power or to make it lighter" Theo looked down into the box and saw a long metal scythe with weird and cryptic symbols coating its handle, the handle continued on past the deadly 2ft long blade and narrowed into a deadly point, like a spear. Theo reached down and clasped his hand around its cold metal handle, as soon as his fingers grazed the metal, the symbols on the handle lit up in a dazzling blue, and the vast weight that Theo had expected disappeared, and he found that he could pick it up easily, as though it was made of paper. He lifted it out of the crate, and ran his finger down the length of the blade. Sharp. Demonic. Deadly.

"This is brilliant Elias" Theo said, still marvelling at the blade "This should compensate for my loss of pow-" he looked up and saw that the crowd had disappeared, all trace of them had faded from existence. The world shifted once more but unlike the other times, it didn't stop, the world kept shifting in an unchanging monotonous rhythm, pulsing like a heart beat. A wave of whiteness appeared in the distance, draining the colour out of everything in its way, Theo knew out of the depths of his heart that this was Dimitri and he'd be damned if he'd let him claim him again.

"Oh no you don't" Theo said through gritted teeth, and turned tail and ran, the scythe still in his hand. The air behind him echoed with a vast demonic roar as if the city itself wanted him dead, the wave of destruction behind him accelerated, ripping apart anything it its way and replacing it with a bland whiteness. He reached the railings and with one final look back, he vaulted them and threw himself out into the sky, plummeting downwards towards the disappearing earth, the whiteness encompassed him and he was left falling…falling in an endless sea of nothing….

Until he woke up…

**A/N: Cool that's another chapter done, in next chapter it is revealed what Dimitris true plan for Theo is but until then. See ya! **


	10. Vendettas Evolution

**A/N: After what I said a few chapters ago about this story being longer than Messiah, well I retract that previous statement, because this is the final chapter. After I finish this story, I think I might write a spin off story about Shadow or Silver…or I can write the third story in this series, tell me in the reviews what you want me to do next. Anyway, this chapter features NinjaKiwi96's OC who featured in Messiah, Anyhow, on with the final chapter.**

"_He's coming round"_

"_His brain activity is increasing, the hallucination is disintegrating. But goodness knows what effect that will have on his mind"_

"_We can only hope the bastard isn't too badly damaged"_

Indiscernible voices swan round Theos mind, like the static between radio stations. His mind yelled at him for him to awake from the crux of implacableness in which he found himself and eventually, his body obeyed. His body went into spasm as he awoke, taking a wild gasp as he did so as though he was on the edge of drowning, but he found he could not. For a second he thought something was wrong with his respiratory system, but as his mind trailed back to him, he realised that he had a feeding tube that went down his throat to his stomach, an oxygen tube was also attached around his nose. He was being held up by thick chains from his wrists, he was standing up but the chains were so tight, it held him up. The room around him was large and labyrinthine; the lights were dying and flickering, casing fleeting shadows from the large computer banks that lined the walls.

Theo finally noticed that three people were in the room with him, and over the sea of confusion, he managed to recognise them, Tails was over by one of the computer banks, tapping away furiously at the keys, whilst Shadow was looking around the room, arms crossed, a displeased look on his stony face. However closest to him was Blaze, she was looking at Theo with a look of shock in her face. Theo tried to speak, but the feeding tube got in the way causing him to choke, in response to his muffled chokes, she quickly grabbed both the oxygen tube and the feeding tube and pulled them out. As the pipes were removed from him, his gag reflex initiated, causing him to violently vomit out all of the contents of his stomach. After a vile choking fit, expelling the last putrid remains of vomit from his throat, he looked up at Blaze, and smiled, causing some bile to run down his chin.

"Hey" Theo croaked, his throat dry and numb from the mass expulsion of bile from his stomach. Blaze didn't reply, her face was white as though she had seen a ghost. Theo's bloodshot eyes scanned the room, "Where am I? Where's Elias?".

Blaze finally talked, still keeping eye contact with Theo but instead addressing Shadow,

"His mind seems scrambled, he still thinks that the hallucination was real".

"Hmm" Shadow said, stroking his chin absentmindedly, he then glanced at Blaze then nodded, "Get him down".

"What do you mean; _hallucination_?" Theo said, "This is Dimitris fault, he's making me…see things…this isn't real". Blaze fired two fire bolts at each chain, causing them to snap, causing Theo to collapse to the floor, into the pool of his own vomit. His legs felt numb from lack of use, and his entire body felt unbearably weak. But his mind was like a raging sea, overflowing with information, but it had consequences, he felt nervous, bordering on the edge of extreme paranoia, as if everyone around him was going to stab him in the back when he wasn't looking. He felt a hand gently clasp his arm and fast as lightning, he pulled it away and scrambled to his feet, using a metal railing to steady himself. He looked feverishly between Blaze and the approaching Shadow, just daring one of them to say something.

"It's Ok Theo" Shadow said, raising his arms in mock surrender, "This is real world, What Dimitri showed you was a dream, designed so that you would believe something else about this so-called 'Leviathan Project'"

Theo's eyes flicked to him when he said the last two words,

"He's changing my timeline, that's what it is; he's destroying my world slowly, that's why I keep seeing those…things".

"Exactly" Shadow said "Dimitri's put that in your head, so you will believe it and won't be swayed otherwise, but since you're out of that dream, I can try and convince you." Shadow took a deep breath then started to explain, slowly and clearly "This what we know. You were dug up by The Dark Legion about two months after you died and your corpse was brought to Dimitri. He did something to you, knowing Dimitri it's something involving cybernetics, but he changed something in your body which made you go into that sleep. We think the dream was meant to last until he had extracted something from your mind, which judging by the fact your awake, I'd say he'd accomplished".

"Look Theo" Blaze said, consolidation in her eyes "What we're trying to say is that nothing in your dream actually happened, all the people that you met were either based on existing ones or who were completely imaginary." Theo slowly stood from his slumped position, swaying slightly from the blood rush.

"None of that was real?" Theo said

"No" Blaze stated,

"But if Shadows right" Theo said, his senses coming back to him "Then why can't I use my powers?"

"What?" Shadow said, his tone darkening, Theo raised his fist and concentrated, will in himself to spawn electricity, but nothing occurred "What the hell?" Shadow wondered. Suddenly, Tails gasped, he scrambled away from the computer and raised towards the three of them, as if his two tails were on fire,

"Guys! Guy!" Tails yelled, even though they were mere metres apart "I think-I think I know what Dimitri did to him"

"What?" Theo said, through gritted teeth,

"Well" Tails said, "Dimitri put an implant inside your brain, he's controlling the impulses in the neurones which would basically make you similar his personal drone. The implant also seems to be attached to the Parietal, Occipital and Temporal lobes of the brain, which when put together all control the senses."

"So that's how he made the hallucination seem so real" Shadow finished, Tails nodded.

"I think all the dream was, was a simple concoction of electrical and chemical signals that were either amplified or reduced by the implant, it seems so easy, but it had devastating effects."

"Can't we just get it out of me?" Theo asked, his mind struggling to compute the information, he could just imagine it now, a cold heart of steel, suffocated by his brain matter, slowly ticking and whirring away, as it controlled its host thought whilst sifting through its memories, finding one moment that it could then relay to its master.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, the implant is fused to your flesh, if we tried to remove it, then who knows what damage we could do."

Theo screwed up his fists and kicked a box in frustration,

"Well oh fucking great, I'm a walking science fair project".

Blaze placed her hand on his shoulder,

"Don't say that" Theo brushed her hand away,

"Well it's true, isn't it?" Theo said "I' m a danger to everyone, with this…thing inside me". Suddenly the door slammed open and a black bat rushed in, carrying several large bags on her back whist carrying a long thin package in her hands. As soon as she entered, she kicked the door shut behind her with a loud bang and dumped the packages on the floor,

"Ah Cynder" Shadow said "Nice of you to join us", Theo looked at the bat a bit more but not enough to seem like a pervert and indeed Shadow was telling the truth, it was Cynder. She seemed virtually unchanged from the last time they met, an unknown amount of time earlier, she still wore the same spiked black armour that looked like it had come from the stories of legend, but she had two long swords strapped to her back, squinting a little, Theo was able to see that those swords were his, he had used them when fighting of the demons in New Mobotropolis, he guessed that she had taken them and continued to use them in his memory, Theo grinned sheepishly and staggered towards her, holding onto the railing to support himself.

"Hey Theo" Cynder said, her expression soft and gentle.

"Hello Cynder" Theo uttered, supporting himself with both hands and the railing as he descended the stairs from the raised platform that he had been on "Long time, no see…how longs it been anyway?" He turned to look at Shadow, as if he was the centre of knowledge in this room, but it was Blaze who answered,

"2 Years, 3 Months and 15 Days" she said, arms folded around her chest as though she was imitating Shadow, Tails cocked his head slightly at Blazes remark and she noticed,

"What? I counted" There was an awkward silence, until Theo smirked and continued to descend the stairs, however in his disorientation he tripped over his bare feet and fell, but Cynder caught him around the armpits,

"Whoa, easy there, big guy. You've been unconscious for quite some time, you're still not stable on your feet." Theo grabbed her shoulder and pulled himself up,

"I'll be fine" he said, quietly. Suddenly there was a loud beeping from one of the control consoles, Tails rushed over it and scanned the plethora of information spewing on to the screen,

"Oh…Crap" He said, running his hand through his orange bangs "We've got several squadron of the legion heading right for us" He turned to Shadow and nodded "Whatever you need to do, do it fast". I suddenly dawned on Theo that even though he and Tails were about the same age, he behaved much more logically and without hesitation, something Theo was still finding hard to master, he wasn't a young cub anymore, he was independent and ready to fight on his own two feet, the old stories of the frightful young boy didn't apply to him anymore. This made Theo feel, outdated, at the time he had been admired by all, other Freedom Fighters were just coming to terms with no conflict or battle that they could throw themselves blindly into, but after a mere two years, his light had faded and the light of independence now shone upon the Freedom Fighters, Tails was evidence of that. He wondered what had happened to the others, whether they were married, or if they had a reputable business at their disposal, or, like Theo had been, they were dead and cold in the frozen earth, waiting for bacteria and parasites to break them down into dust. He remembered something Shadow had said to him years earlier,

_The most deadly sin isn't Greed or Lust. Its Pride, because unlike the others, Pride never leaves you, it will still clamp like a vice on your heart_.

He could now see where Shadow was coming from with this view, he craved to be the centre of attention, he wanted the people spotlight and respect on him rather than the Freedom Fighters, he needed his glory to be restored, like a drug addict needs their chosen poison. That what it was, a poison, palpable venom that he knew could consume him easily, his pride had damaged him more than the demon blood that coursed through his veins. Theo wondered if his pride had also leaded him to his death, after all, a heroic sacrifice would have easily made him the centre of attention and could have restored his already damaged legacy. His biggest enemy wasn't a demon or a scientist. It was himself.

He was snapped out of his out-of-place epiphany, by Shadow dragging him by the arm towards the table where the numerous parcels lay; the black hedgehog then pushed his grey counterpart in front of him, Theo turned in confusion, but Shadow simply nodded towards the packages,

"I found these in one of the storerooms" Cynder piped up "Figured you'd need them". Theo grabbed one of the packages and, looping his fingers around the brown paper tore it open feverishly, inside were some new clothes, a dark blue shirt and black trousers along with a brown waistcoat. After he pulled them out, he noticed a new black trench coat with white swirling patterns coating it, as he pulled it on; he felt the polyester lining slip around his arms, embracing him like an old friend. After opening the second package, he found that it contained large leather boots, which were a perfect fit as he tried them on. He looked in the grimy and cracked mirror on the wall, his matted quills hung down past his shoulders and his red eyes had faded into a dull grey, his skin looked yellow and sunken, which only emphasised the look of death that hung about him; his muzzle was covered in stubble of various shades of grey, which made him look much older than he actually was.

Theo turned to Cynder, she nodded towards the long crate that lay across the table, he walked over to it and ran his fingers over the bolts that held it together, Cynder pulled a screwdriver out of her belt and began to undo the bolts on the other end, Theo sighed and punched through the wodden lid and tore the boards away in one swift movement.

Cynder whistled,

"Nice".

Inside the crate lay the scythe that Theo had seen in his dream, down to the finest details, the symbols, the etchings on the blade even the shape and feel of the handle.

"This was in my dream" Theo said, clasping his hand around the long handle and lifting it up, like in his dream, the runes glowed blue and the scythe came out of the box as if it weighed the same as a blade of grass, "Its demon-made, only responds to a demons hold." He turned to Cynder, noticing Tails out of the corner of his eye, franticly tapping at keys, he presumed that the fox was overriding the security in order to keep the legion off their backs, "Where did you find all this stuff anyway?"

"Dimitri's storerooms" Cynder said, brushing one of her black bangs out of her face "They were all in a locker with your name on it, figured that stuff would be important".

"So that raises the question" Theo said, strapping the scythe to his back in order to keep it secure "Why did Dimitri keep that stuff". Over by the computer, Tails and Shadow were talking in low whispers occasionally glancing at Theo before resuming the conversation in their secretive tone. Theo frowned,

"Hey guys!" he called to them "Mind sharing the joke?"

Tails looked at Shadow,

"Shall I tell him, or shall you?"

"I'll tell him" Shadow replied, he stepped towards Theo and sighed,

"We've found more schematics of your anatomy" Shadow said, his arms folded "And it says that your powers aren't gone, they've evolved."

"But that's impossible" Theo said "When I try to use my powers, nothing happens"

"Well try to activate them differently, if they've evolved, it's likely that the trigger would have evolved too". Theo thought, trying to sift through his mind to find this mythical trigger, the elicit of his new apparent power; then something sparked metaphorically in his mind, he felt a great rush of power, course through his veins, he felt as if his blood was evaporating and burning inside him, this sudden surge began to flow towards his back where he felt it burst out of him, he screwed his eyes up tight due to the unpleasant sensation. Curling, black tendrils spiralled out of his back, with a texture like smoke and shadow, almost like new and obscene arms that were willing to do his bidding. He opened his eyes and looked around him and saw the smoky limbs that had formed out of his back, he moved them around a little and was surprised to find that there were no limitations to the movement of these new demonic arms, he could even loop them round on themselves if he so wished.

"What the?" Shadow muttered to himself. Theo turned and looked at a old filing cabinet that stood, rusty and broken in the corner, without knowing what he was doing, Theo held out his arm with his flat palm pointing at the desired location, in a flash, one of the demonic tendrils flew outwards, stretching to inhuman proportions and latching onto the filing cabinet having spit into multiple strands and fastening onto it like a claw.

Theo retracted his hand sharply, causing the arm to pull the filing cabinet toward him as if it weighed nothing, as it shored through the air towards him, Theo instinctively raised his arm to protect himself, as he did so one two other demonic tendrils shot out and caught the cabinet before it hit Theo, before tearing it apart with a scream of ripping metal.

"Aw hell yeah!" Theo said, grinning like a five year old before Christmas,

"I do have to admit that was...unexpected" Blaze breathed, still staring at the demonic limbs with a mixture of admiration and worry. Tails didn't look too shocked though, he still stood at the computer with one hand on the keyboard, a neutral expression on his face. Shadow merely smirked,

"You call _that_ evolution, I could do better"

"No way in hell" Cynder said, playfully punching Shadow on the arm

"Easy" Shadow said, still with a cocky smile on his face "Power's my forte". Theo clicked his fingers and the tendrils disappeared back into him, giving Theo the unpleasant sensation that someone was forcing something down his veins. Theo turned to the others with a manic grin on his face,

"God, that felt good" he noticed that Shadow was looking even more dark and brooding than usual "Yo, Shads" Theo said, causing Shadow to cringe at the informal shortening of his name "What's got your knickers in a knot?"

"I don't think you should use that power" Shadow said darkly "That power was given to you by Dimitri and as the old saying goes '_Beware the traitors that benefit their side_'". Theo smirked, but deep down he remember the issue that had bothered him mere minutes ago; his pride, if he used this power, his own arrogance could completely alter him for the worse, this power could make him more successful, therefore increasing his confidence to the point of cockiness, which could bring his pride up to danger levels, but then again, he knew what was right for him, who was he to listen to others telling him how he should live his life? He could do what he wanted, the power felt good, he had never felt so…alive.

"Relax, I'm not going to become the stereotypical villain just by getting a new power" Theo snorted, taking his latter thoughts and projecting them verbally.

"Power corrupts Theo, you of all people should know that"

Theo turned on him, his mood suddenly reversing, his mind singing with a unexpected fury,

"You know full well that I was under Mephelis's influence, I didn't mean to kill those people"

Shadow held his ground staring back at Theo,

"Still didn't stop you from killing though, didn't it?"

"You didn't know what it was like" Theo uttered through gritted teeth, Shadow glowered and squared up to Theo,

"You think I don't? There was a point, a long time ago when I was killing anyone in my way; but you can resist it, but_ you_ didn't! You were just too weak".

At this remark, Theo growled, and raised his fist as though to punch Shadow in the face, but, fast as lightning, Blaze intervened, pushing the two hedgehogs apart,

"That's _enough_" Blaze growled, Theo muttered some curses under his breath and walked away from them, knowing better than to risk fight with both Blaze and Shadow, he'd have his arse handed to him on a silver platter. He heard Blaze talking in angry whispers to Shadow,

"We've just got him back, don't go forcing us apart"

Shadow grunted in response and turned away and joined Tails at the computer console, still shooting daggers at Shadow, Blaze went over and joined Cynder, who was busy studying Theo from a distance, a worried expression on her face. Theo simply stood, arms folded, glaring at the wall, as if wishing it to crumble to dust before him, at first he was glad that he had been brought back, and by some of his closest friends, but now he wished that they would just burn before him, and have their souls cast into the deepest reaches of the abyss. He knew now, friendship was a mere illusion, like the trance he had been consumed in just mere hours ago. The only person he could rely on was himself, _he _made the best decisions, _he_ knew what was best for him, and _he_ was the most intelligent. He turned to look at Blaze over his shoulder; she had her back to him and was busy talking to Cynder, Theo's inner rage burned more brightly.

She didn't love him or even care about him, the slut was probably bust chasing some other poor man that would be forever lashed to her side until her stranglehold on his life would drive him insane, that all love was in the end, a way of destroying another's life though compaction and consideration, people would focus on love rather than other things that they should care about. He wondered how many Mobian lives had been devastated because love effected a certain persons decision. He remembered what Dimitri had told him in his hallucination, about one person's decision affecting the lives of every person on the planet, he claimed this was Leviathan Theory. But that was just a mere mind trick in order to get him to believe it. He realised now, Dimtri had been telling the truth, but it was love that changed peoples decisions thus affecting every living thing. The various kingdoms and empires all had love for their people, well almost all of them; this love could cause them to make outlandish decisions that will make some lives, but obliterate others. Love was meaningless, when one thought about it.

Then a massive pain shot though his head, he grunted and collapsed to his knees, the symbol that had plagued his mind, flashing before his eyes, he heard a rushing sound behind him, he turned to see that the world around him had stopped, Shadow and the others were still there, but they were frozen in position, unmoving, like mannequins in a dress shop window. The swirl and cross symbol was emblazoned everywhere, it coated the walls and ceiling like some form of surreal wallpaper, everyone around him had tiny versions of the symbols covering them, coating their skin, fur and clothes as if they were symptoms of some horrifying disease.

"So, you're out" a mysterious voice echoed through the room, then out of the shadows, the robotic echidna that Theo had been expecting, stepped forward. Dimitri's robotic joints humming and clanking as he walked towards him.

"Yeah, I'm out of your freak show" Theo grunted, he unsheathed the scythe from his back and held it in his hands, his knuckles white from gripping it so hard, "What do you want?"

"Ah, I see you got my gifts then" Dimitri said, studying the scythe closely with his robotic red eyes.

"Gifts?" Theo questioned "What the fuck do you mean?"

"Language, dear Theo. I gave you both the scythe and that new demonic power, so…" He thought a while, rolling his wrist for emphasis his point "…You could achieve your true potential".

"So what I'm like your weapon. I thought you had all you wanted from me?"

Dimitri frowned then chuckled,

"So, Shadow worked the system out, clever. And yes I have got what I required from your memories, but that isn't important now, what is important is the new paths that have opened up to you". Theo lowered the scythe slightly,

"So you don't want to kill me?" At this Dimitri roared with laughter, harsh electronic laughter that seemed to reverberate around the room,

"I don't want to kill you, heck, what would I do without you? You made the Leviathan project possible, the last true demon to walk the earth. And now I've built you a weapon and evolved your powers into something new and grand"

"I'll still kill you for what you did to me" Theo growled raising the scythe once more

"Oh you will Theo, give it five years then you'll get what you want. But the question is, when those five years are up, will you kill me? Or thank me?" Dimitri said, a scientific glint in his eye,

"What do you mean?" Theo grunted "I could tear you apart right now"

"But you won't" Dimtir said "Because you're curious". Theo sighed and lowered the scythe,

"Fine, first question; why five years?"

Dimitri smiled "I've made calculations on what you might do after this meeting, imagine what you could do in all that time, you know that this world needs to be taught a lesson , that it needs a fair and just way of dealing with its people, and most of all, you want redemption for what you've seen the government do and how little the Freedom Fighters have done to help the poor and the homeless, there busy living fancy lives whilst we clean up their mess in the dirt."

"You didn't answer my question" Theo growled, Dimitri smiled

"Probability is a great tool, Theo; there isn't a definite time for when you might come for me, it could be three years, seven years, maybe none at all. But the average states that it is five years, until you complete your task and finally come after me".

"Question two" Theo said "Why go after me? Why give me that power?"

"You're the last born demon that walks the earth, any ordinary person couldn't handle that power, however a demon, easily could. But since you were six feet under, I had to think, radically. When I received your body, I implanted a motorised cortex into your brain, which allowed me to rekindle your life signs and for me to manipulate your mind so you would cook up that dream, where I could delve even deeper into your mind and get what I wanted whist, altering your powers to make you stronger." Dimitri said "To make you ready for your task"

"Where should I start?" Theo asked

"Go to Soleanna, the Duke there is corrupt and cares for the pleasures of women rather than caring for his people. There you'll find people who want to take him down, if you mention me, it will get you places. If you use the strategies that you were taught in GUN in order to take down an enemy and implement them here, you'll have your perfect plan" Dimitri turned to look at the others, still frozen in time "But these people will try and stop you, even getting away from here, so, run, run as fast as you can, I've ordered the legion not to attack you, there's legion motorbikes by the front gates, if you steal one of them, you'll be off and heading towards your destiny."

Dimitri turned to walk back into the shadows but Theo called him back,

"Wait, one final question"

Dimitri looked over his shoulder and spoke patiently "What is it?"

"What is Leviathan? Truly?"

Dimitri laughed and kept on walking, "It's you. It was an experiment to make you even stronger so you could carry out what you thought was right"

"But"

Dimitri held up his hand to silence him

"See you in five years Theo" And with that, the scientist faded away into the shadows and disappeared. The symbols disappeared and time began to flow back to normal. Without hesitation, Theo ran out of the room before his companions had any idea what was happening, he darted down the corridor, he could hear the others realising that he was gone but by that time he was away, he turned sharply around another corner and ran down it, on his left, the corridor was lined with French windows, each looking over the right side of the vast courtyard that followed the front gates, he could see that what Dimitri said had been true, there were lines of futuristic looking motorbikes lined up neatly to the sides. With a deep breath, Theo kicked outwards, smashing one of the windows and propelled himself outwards into the storm that brewed outside. The rain lashed at him as he fell, and the wind roared through his ears and in no time at all, he landed and rolled in order to prevent him from getting serious injured, caking his coat in mud as he did so. He scrambled up, slipping slightly in the mud that seek to engulf his boots. He ran over to the nearest motorbike and straddled it, he pressed an inviting silver button and the engine roared into life, at the same time, a little screen lit up with words emblazoned on it,

_Destination:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

Theo reached down and typed _Soleanna_ into it. The machine bleeped then a final message of _'Thank you' _appeared on screen before it showed him details about the length of the route and the time it would take to reach Soleanna. Theo stared out into the horizon, at the storm clouds swirling and dancing upon the knife edge of the world. He knew what he had to do, and he was the only one who could do it. And with that Theos bike accelerated out into the storm with a roar.

_Meanwhile_…

Dimitri was sat on a chair in a darkened room, watching the surveillance that was being streamed to him now, Showing Theo making do his escape. Behind him a darkened figure watched to, out of reach of the light of the screen as if light burned the figure,

"Tell me Dimitri" The figure said , "Why did you lie to him about the five year thing?"

Dimitri smirked "If I had told him that you showed me, then I think he wouldn't even accept that. His mind is still damaged, it needs to repair"

"And the plan" The figure asked,

Dimitri sighed, "I've convinced him to go off-the-rails and to rebel, we need him to be isolated,

"_I" _the figured said "I need him to be isolated from his companions; you forget this was my part of the plan, yours is now complete".

"Then what will you do?" Dimitri asked "When he's isolated I mean"

"He will fall, to his own madness" The figure said, his eyes glinting slightly "And I can tell you, that is already in motion"…

**A/N: And there we are, Leviathan is over and done with, remember to review you're overall thoughts on the story, also say what you would like to see next, the third story in this series or a sin off about either Shadow or Silver. I would like to thank everyone who helped with this story. And I will see you guys soon. Bye.**


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